Twin's Game
by Super Saiyan Cyndaquil
Summary: Joan Arc and her twin, Jaune Arc, transfer into Beacon in hopes of finding peace for themselves. However, when their unusual relationship and a string of incidents causing students to collapse begins to draw negative attention, the two instead find themselves further from it than ever.
1. Prologue

**Preword:** Alrighty, so here we go. My next project.

I honestly didn't expect to start something new this quickly. I had a vague idea for what I wanted to do in terms of themes and characters, but there was almost nothing concrete at all even a couple weeks ago. I pitched some of what I was thinking to Jefardi and Wildstraydog and they were immensely helpful in getting this idea pushed through the planning process at a fairly expedited rate. Wildstraydog will also be continuing to help me by looking over every chapter before release for quality control. Usually Jefardi does that kind of stuff for me, but alas, real life has been busy for him lately and he doesn't have much time to work on his own stuff, let alone help me with mine. So thanks to Wildstraydog for stepping in to help me out!

You'll also notice that this particular story is tagged as M, which will be a first for me. I ended up deciding to rate it this from earlier on just because of the themes central to the story, more-so than because of any kind of planned excessive violence or sexual situations. Having said that, I think I may take advantage of the higher rating to try and write things I wouldn't normally. Just a fair warning.

This is going to be another story with heavy focus on an OC in the form of Jaune's twin sister. After the relative success of Spectrum, I'm feeling confident enough to try something like that again. However, don't expect the Joan in this story to be like the one in Spectrum. She and Jaune both are different characters from that story and with a different background. There also won't be any other OCs in this, so you don't have to be worried about being potentially overloaded with characters you don't know this time around. Just the one.

With all that good stuff said and out of the way, I guess it's time to get started.

* * *

 **Twin's Game**

 _Prologue_

* * *

I am not a bad person.

How many times have I repeated this lie to myself like a mantra? How many times have I actually believed myself whenever I said it?

It didn't matter how many times you said something. It didn't matter how much you tried to bury the truth.

In the end and a lie was still a lie. No matter how much you wanted to believe it wasn't.

If I really was a bad person, was it even my fault that I turned out this way? Wasn't it more sensible to blame my parents or my older sisters who raised me? It wasn't my fault that I didn't know what we were doing could be considered wrong or abnormal. No one had ever told me and by the time they did- how could they expect me to change just like that?

I had been normal until that moment. To all of the sudden tell me that all along my way of thinking- my world-view was wrong and somehow twisted? It was like a bad joke and at first I had just treated it as nothing more than one.

It was only after I was aware of it that I noticed the change. The way he held me felt different, somehow more intimate. The scent of him caused me to itch in ways I never had in places I never knew were capable of before. His smile made my heart flutter and skip a beat, always pushing the blood upwards and coloring my cheeks.

If that had been all it was, it might have been fine. I could have crushed those feelings at any moment. I'm sure of it. There's no doubt. Another lie.

I wasn't the only one who changed, however. _They_ did too. Everyone looked at us differently. No, it wasn't right to say the way they looked at us was somehow different, it was just more accurate to say I was now aware of their looks and what they truly meant. The townsfolk, our neighbors, the Huntsmen, even our own parents began to look- had always looked at us like we were strange. Like we were _freaks_.

So we did the only thing we could. We ran. Away from our family. Away from their judgement. Away from our problems. We took a couple old family heirlooms for protection and got the Hell out of there.

The thing was, there was no running away from the problem we had. If anything, running only made it worse than before. Made _us_ worse than before. After all, it wasn't society that was at fault. It was us. It had always been us.

My body heaved, stomach churning angrily and rejecting the contents inside with violent purpose. Had this been a Grimm, I would have thought it out to kill me. This was no opponent I could physically strike at, however, and I was helpless to do anything but silently feel the tears roll down my cheeks as what little breakfast I managed to eat came roaring back to the surface.

Hunks of half-digested bread and eggs, mixed together with orange juice and gastric fluids tumbled from my lips like a waterfall and splashed into the pond on the edge of our little village. My throat ached, begging for it to stop. It did.

My reflection in the water was obscured now, diluted by the orangey-brown substance. Just as it started to clear, strands of my scraggly blonde hair coming into view in the reflection, and my stomach saw fit to strike again. My whole body seized as if I was going into cardiac arrest and an awful, inhuman retch sent another wave splashing down. Through the fabric of my knee-high stockings, I could feel the water and puke spraying against my shins and ankles. After only a couple seconds that felt like hours did it stop.

I gasped, lungs desperate for oxygen of any kind. They didn't care that every inhale came along with the strong scent of my regurgitation. Every breath and I thought this would be the one that caused me to start again. Every breath I waited in terrified agony for the inevitable. Only for it to never come and the earlier contents I rejected sank to the bottom of the pond.

Rolling my tongue around the inside of my mouth, I did my best to gather the leftover puke. Every time I collected a little bit more and it sent a shiver down my spine. Finally I thought I had it all and spit, attempting to clear the taste completely from my mouth. It wasn't even the slightest bit successful.

The discolored leftovers clung to the edge of my lip, slowly sliding down and into the pond by a string of drool. It connected with the water and held for a few seconds before finally parting with an inaudible snap and causing the rest of the string to stick to my chin. I spit a couple more times in rapid succession and licked at my lower lip to try and get rid of it but only succeeded in making it worse.

Finally, I just lifted my sleeve to wipe it away, only to stop just short as the orange fabric came into view. There was a slight hesitance, a desire to not dirty his clothes with my filth. Only to have it disappear as soon as I realized by wearing it at all I was in a way already desecrating it. So I wiped my chin dry, content with the knowledge it wasn't any more filthy now than it was before. At least not to anyone other than me. Of course, my opinion didn't matter anyways so in that regard there truly wasn't any change.

His scent drifted from the sleeve and I paused, letting it rest while pressing against my face. There was another moment's hesitance, but I already knew the choice I was going to make. So I just closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, desperate to do anything to allow me to sense him more.

As his essence filled my nostrils, I was overcome by a powerful bout of drowsiness. How long had it been since I last slept? Two days? Three? It was all starting to blend together, as it always did when I went more than a single night without any rest. An occurrence that was becoming more and more frequent as of late.

It was what led to this almost grotesque appearance. The vomit had all but disappeared now and the ripples of the water had slowed, giving me a perfect reflection of myself with the aid of the first light of day. My sky-blue eyes looked almost sunken into my skull, thick dark bags underneath them doing nothing to better my image.

If not for that and I may have been kind of pretty, with my fair skin lacking any blemish when not covered in dried tears and shoulder-length golden blonde hair. Of course, my hair right now was an absolute disaster with odd ends poking out every which way. It was almost laughable, if only I didn't look so pitiful.

My clothes didn't help either, the hoodie I was wearing making me look like a homeless plague-upon-society. It was at least two sizes too big, the skin of one of my shoulders completely exposed and the sleeve nearly falling off. The Pumpkin Pete bunny mascot in the middle was at least adorable, but anyone looking at this hoodie knew it wasn't mine from the size alone. Nor were the orange sleeves I wore, so long they covered the entirety of my palm when held straight and leaving only my fingers visible. Then there were my jean shorts, sporting several tears that reduced the already negligible amount of fabric they barely had. It was supposed to be fashion or something, but combined with my already hobo-esque appearance and I wasn't going to be winning any beauty pageants in the foreseeable future.

I almost let out a sigh of self-derision. Almost. My appearance wasn't worth being upset over. It wasn't like I didn't have my own tops, but they didn't have his scent on them like this hoodie and these sleeves did. Besides, he didn't care much how I looked and he had seen me in far worse states than this. So if he wasn't bothered by my appearance, than I wouldn't be either.

"Joan." Or perhaps I spoke too soon. Standing at the edge of the pond, looking out across it and over at me was my twin brother, Jaune Arc.

His tone carried with it that silent disappointment and general uneasiness whenever he was about to confront me about something I had done. Despite that, he also always managed to sound simultaneously worried for me and my well-being. Which made it impossible for me to get mad at him when he went and acted like an overprotective big brother. Never mind the fact he was only older by seven whole minutes.

The first rays of light cast him in an orange glow, making his scraggly blond hair practically shine and blue eyes to appear a dark purple. His expression was shrouded in shade, but I knew every face he was capable of making. So I knew without difficulty the kind of expression he wore now. It didn't bode well for me.

Why did I have to come out to the edge of the village of all places? On the other side of me was a deep forest, the inside not yet visible with the sun still so low over the horizon. The residential houses were a ways off still, the closest building to us being an old church positioned behind Jaune. No one lived at the church, meaning if Jaune felt like yelling, no one was going to hear our sibling spat. Had it been later in the day maybe, but it was still too early for anyone in the village to head in this direction.

Despite this, he didn't yell. "Give me the bottle." Instead he just held out his hand and made a demand in a normal speaking voice. Don't misunderstand. Just because the volume was low, didn't mean his voice wasn't absolutely terrifying right now. If I didn't comply, there would be consequences.

Even so, I still sought a way out of this situation. So I played dumb. "I don't know what you're talking about…" I said, averting my eyes and looking up at the changing sky.

"The bottle." He played along with my game, but I was a fool to think that meant he was going to let me off the hook. "The one with the sleeping pills I told you to stop taking. The sleeping pills that you're going to overdose on because you keep taking too many of them. Like what happened this morning which is why you're out here right now, throwing up into the pond to hide the evidence so I won't find out. That bottle."

Fuck. I should have known better than trying to hide it from him. He was my twin. There was nothing I could ever hide from him, just like there was nothing he could ever hide from me. This deception had been meaningless from the beginning, yet I vainly tried to get away with it anyways. Maybe I had just been hoping he would let it go? Even I wasn't sure what I was thinking by going through this whole elaborate scheme.

Jaune continued to stand there, open palm extended and waiting for me to produce the bottle. He would have already come out to get it if I wasn't standing on the middle of the pond. Reluctantly, I fished in my back jean's pocket for it and tossed it to him. He caught it with practiced ease, twisting off the cap and counting the contents inside without delay.

He grimaced but said nothing. I already knew how many pills I had taken so he didn't feel the need to verbalize the number missing. The fact that we were here at all was proof enough that I had overdone it. Exactly like he said. Damn know-it-all.

I started across the pond with my head hung low, feet soundlessly stepping on the water as if it was solid ground. I walked until I was right in front of him, his feet on the very edge of the pond, me just over the shallow, ankle-deep surface. "I'm sorry." I whispered, not even loud enough for him to hear.

He cupped my chin between his thumb and index finger, lifting my head and turning my sapphire blue eyes to look into his matching own. He might not have heard me, but he knew I had spoke and what I had said. There was a moment of silence between us where he debated what to do. As well as I knew him and even I didn't know what decision he would land on. Had I been punished enough by throwing up or did he feel I hadn't yet learned my lesson?

My body shivered, waiting for his decision. For him to punish me. My heart-beat quickened and cheeks filled with color. I tried to hide my shortening breath, but it was pointless as my breasts rose and fell in sync with my flaring nostrils. I squeezed my legs together, hips slowly swaying back and forth as I tried and failed to ignore the tingling sensation growing down below.

He noticed all this and finally let out a long, terribly pained sigh. His decision was made and I knew I was safe from any further consequences. This time. I also knew if I were to do this again, he wouldn't let me off the hook so easily. Provided I didn't accidentally kill myself by taking so many pills that I went to sleep and never woke up.

It wasn't my fault. The stupid pills were supposed to put me to sleep. If one wasn't going to work then maybe that just meant I needed two? When not two, I tried three. So on and so forth until… well, I applied this logic until I wound up in this predicament I currently found myself.

Jaune's hand left my chin, fingers coming around to wipe my cheeks and attempt to clear the dried tears from my face. It was like he simultaneously had no idea what I was feeling right now and yet was perfectly aware of the effect he was having on me all at once. It would be downright infuriating if his touch didn't make me so damn pleased. I hated the contradiction, but I knew the source of the problem was with me, not him.

I stood still, fuming silently at myself while also just enjoying his touch and allowing him to wipe my face clean. In the end and the pleasure of the situation won out. It was hard not to smile and I think he noticed the edges of my lips curl ever so slightly. Had I been a cat and my chest would have been humming in a loud purr.

"What are you wearing?" I finally asked him, having noticed the unusually sharp suit the moment he arrived, but having been too scared to attempt to switch the conversation while he was angry.

"Ah, this?" Jaune took a step back while his hands, to my obviously-made disappointment, separated from my face. He posed in the suit as if showing it off like I hadn't already gotten a full view of it while still standing on the middle of the pond. His mouth parted in one of his famous picture-worthy smiles. And by famous, I meant infamous because they were so terribly awkward and terrifying to look at that it made little children cry and dogs growl at him whenever he tried. "How do I look?" He asked like the smile wasn't ruining the whole image. Poor, naive soul.

"Like a million lien." I lied through my teeth. We were both terrible liars, if my earlier failure of a deception didn't already make that obvious. Yet he bought into this one without so much as a blink. Just went to show that sometimes there _were_ lies that you could believe simply because you wanted to. "But you didn't answer my question, what is it? Why do you have it?"

"It's Beacon's uniform." He said. The smile was gone, replaced by a slightly more apprehensive expression. He cleared his throat, adjusting the tie of the suit to loosen it slightly and then let out a nervous chuckle. "I decided to accept Ozpin's offer. For both of us. We should probably leave today." His voice started to trail off until it was barely over a whisper by the time he finished. "The nearest town with an airship is in Shion Village and it's a long flight… to Beacon, that is." After that he went silent.

"I see." Was all I said. It wasn't that I was mad, but I was still trying to understand his decision. Even if he didn't tell me, I could connect the dots well enough on my own. It was just rather sudden and it was odd for him to make a choice without consulting me first. The last I heard about this offer was over two weeks ago when we first got it. Jaune hadn't brought it up since then so I assumed he decided against it.

"What about the village?" I asked. That was the only part of this that didn't line up with the image of Jaune I had in my head.

Jaune had always wanted to be a Huntsman. It was his dream since he was a little kid. However, father refused to train us outside of basic self-defense and the bare minimum when it came to wielding a sword.

We had gained some skills since running away, paying a passerby to unlock our Aura, and then picking up things here and there from the travelling Huntsmen who stopped in our current village for the night. As things stood now, however, Jaune and I were the only protection this little place had. They were just a small-time fishing community. Huntsmen rarely travelled here and most of our training had been do or die against the Grimm.

As much as Jaune always wanted to be a Huntsman, that goal was just a way to service his real dream of being a hero. He wanted to protect people and save lives. Becoming a Huntsman had been the most realistic way of achieving that, but he gave it up to run away with me. Now he was at least able to partially live that dream with our current life. It wasn't perfect, but we were the best chance this place had. If that didn't qualify Jaune as a hero, I didn't know what would.

"Do you even care?" Jaune returned my question with his own.

It was a fair point. Unlike him, I didn't give a rat's ass about these people. In the end, they were no better than the ones we had run away from in the first place. Jaune and I risked our lives without proper training all the time to save them and this shitty little settlement they called a home and for what? Sure, they hadn't chased us out but that was because they needed us and knew it.

They judged us for something we weren't even guilty of. No matter how close Jaune and I were, there was a line we hadn't crossed. My feelings on it regardless didn't change that we had always been innocent despite their thoughts to the contrary. They didn't deserve us to protect them, but just like how they couldn't afford to chase us out, we couldn't exactly take a chance to break this peaceful (no matter how strained it was) coexistence.

At least not until now. Something had changed, but I still didn't know what. I was missing a crucial piece of information. Without it and I would never be able to see where Jaune's sudden decision was coming from.

"It's fine." He didn't wait for my answer. He already knew it anyways. "Ozpin agreed to send a Huntsman to protect this village in our place." Ah, so that's what it was. No matter what and Jaune truly just couldn't abandon anyone to die, regardless of what his feelings towards them may have been. I wish I could say I was as good as he was, but that would just be another lie.

"That's kind of odd though, isn't it?" I asked, crossing my arms and biting my lower lip. "Why would he go so far to ensure our recruitment?" It was still the middle of the school-year if I understood correct. The Vytal Tournament had ended just over a month ago, even if it hadn't exactly finished.

We weren't really able to get the details, living so far out in the boonies, but someone had staged some kind of attack during the tournament that stopped it halfway. Whatever it was that had happened, it had been brought under control and as far as we knew, everything was continuing in Vale as normal now.

There had been a scare in there for a minute and the intensity of Grimm attacks spiked for a couple days. I hear it was far worse in Mistral City, but they also had the staff to handle that. We held up pretty well considering it was just the two of us.

Maybe the damage in Beacon had been worse than what they were saying? That still wouldn't explain why Ozpin would go so far as to recruit us specifically. Unless… did he know about our ability? That was an intriguing possibility and that alone was enough for me to make my decision. No doubt something my twin already knew.

"Well, it doesn't matter." I nodded to him. "If you're going, of course so will I. We'll figure out what he wants when we're actually there." There was a brief smile that crossed Jaune's face after I verbalized my agreement before it slipped back into that same frown he had when he first found me this morning.

He crossed the distance back to me and I tensed, waiting for whatever it was he was about to scold me for this time. His hands came to rest on my shoulders. On the shoulder with my exposed skin, his fingers traced gentle circles and left a trail of goosebumps that travelled all the way down my spine.

"You've been getting worse recently." He whispered. It was only then I understood the real reason he was making this decision. "It's true I don't want anyone here to die, but if we stay here any longer, Joan, and it's going to be you who dies. I can't let that happen."

"Heh," I snorted while looking up at him, trying to inject some humor into my voice. "That's not very heroic sounding of you, bro. The real hero is supposed to save everyone." I didn't mean those words and he knew it.

It was just… he was scaring me right now. I didn't want to die either. If I died, we wouldn't be together anymore and there was no guarantee we would be able to meet in the afterlife. That thought was most terrifying, being separated from my twin so permanently. Yet here he was predicting without any doubt my death in this village.

His next words were spoken in such a soft whisper I had to strain my ears to hear them. "So long as I can be your hero, that's enough for me." He then leaned down, pressing his lips hard against my forehead.

We stood there for far too long in that position. It was exactly things like this that started the rumors in the first place. Both before and again. Even so, I did not care.

Tears silently rolled down my cheeks, ruining Jaune's earlier efforts to make my face clean. Unlike the tears of fear and pain while throwing up, however, these were born from unrestrained joy. My body didn't know how else to possibly express itself and this was the only thing it could do to show how deeply my twin's words and actions moved me.

My chest swelled with repressed feelings and had my body not been frozen, I would have taken Jaune's cheeks in my hands and moved his lips to capture mine. I felt that itch again, like I always did when I considered the possibility of taking him and claiming him irrefutably as mine.

Just like that and I could have so easily become like what everyone always said I was. Like how we were.

I really am a terrible person… and that isn't a lie.

* * *

 **Prologue End**


	2. The Girl with the Silver Eyes

**AN:** I think I'm going to do something a little different this time compared to my other stories. Usually I leave my Author's Notes at the bottom and after every chapter. I'm going to try leaving them at the top this time. Since I'm doing it this way, I think I'll also just generally talk about the last chapter and if anything ever comes up in the reviews because something was unclear, I can address it now. So these ANs may also be more reactionary than my usual ones.

Let's start with the one almost every review seemed to say in some way.

Yes, this is kind of a ballsy fic idea. I seriously had a lot of doubts about starting it at all. Jefardi and Wildstraydog again were very helpful in boosting my confidence by taking such an interest in it and helping me plan for it. Wildstraydog is even looking over every chapter for quality which is another weight off my mind in continuing forward.

Having said that and as some noticed, I'm not looking to explore Jaune and Joan's relationship like some anime tend to do by normalizing and sometimes even glorifying incest. Their relationship isn't entirely healthy and they both have some serious mental demons drumming around in their head.

There were also a couple wondering what Jaune and Joan are even going to do at Beacon with the Vytal Tournament resolved and essentially starting this story post Volume-3. My first few drafts actually had Salem to be the big bad but that entire plot got scrapped to make this a smaller-scale character conflict. There's still a plot with an antagonist, but it's tied in more personally with Jaune and Joan's reason for being at Beacon and isn't anything on the scale of world-ending.

So how's that? If you got any comments/concerns, please feel free to leave them in a review. I might talk about them in these ANs and I also might send you a PM if I'm not feeling too shy.

Finally, just huge thanks to everyone who favorited, followed, or left a review. Like I've said, I was not feeling confident at all about this idea so to get the amount of positive response I did in just the first chapter has been a real booster for me. Thank you and here we go.

* * *

 **Twin's Game**

The First Day (Part I)

 _The Girl with the Silver Eyes_

* * *

There are only three things in this world that I can say with absolute certainty I enjoy: My twin brother, fairy tales, and coffee.

Everything else is either tolerated with varying levels of indifference or otherwise detested and I will do everything in my power to make sure I don't have to deal with it. Too bad sometimes I had no choice but to deal with them.

Like airships for example. How anyone in their right mind ever thought these were a fantastic idea is beyond me. I mean, they're literally giant, pressurized tubes of metal, stuffed with all kinds of highly volatile Dust. Then people take these deathtraps and fly them through Grimm invested skies while carrying the lives of dozens of others. Not only did someone one day think this was a great idea, but other people had the audacity to agree with them! How the fuck is that even possible!?

If you haven't already figured it out from just that, I'm kind of in a foul mood right about now. Being on a airship had a tendency to do that to me. So did going several days yet again without sleep of any kind. Put the two together and well - I wasn't going to be a bright ball of sunshine when we landed at Beacon in the next few minutes, to say the least.

Add to that and my sweet, loving, deeply affectionate brother for whom I was on this deathtrap to begin with was out like a gods-damned light. He looked so peaceful, head leaning against my shoulder, string of drool running down his chin and staining his hoodie of which I was wearing… I could almost slap him. Misery loves company, after all, and if I was miserable it seemed only right that he be too. Even more-so since he used the very sleeping pills he confiscated from me to fall asleep in the first place.

Jaune doesn't handle air-travel well, you see. He gets motion sickness very easily. Having our Aura unlocked seemed to mitigate that somewhat but a flight of any real length and his stomach just couldn't hold up. So rather than deal with all that, he would just pop a pill and drift off to lalaland for the duration of the numerous flights it took to reach this far. Jerk.

I looked above me and at the cabinet that held our luggage. If I could just somehow get my brother off my shoulder, it might have even been possible for me to open it up, grab my bottle of pills, and replace them with the placebos I got just for this very situation. Jaune was very susceptible to the power of suggestion and if he popped a sugar pill, he would probably fall asleep just as quickly as if it had been the real deal. In other words, he would never realize the truth. Finally, a lie I could get away with.

Of course, as I just stated, that would involve removing Jaune from my shoulder. And as much as I wanted those pills, it was impossible for me to do anything that involved forcing my twin away from me. So for the remainder of the trip, I simultaneously fumed in silence at myself for allowing such a perfect opportunity to slip past and enjoyed the feel of my brother's face pressed so close to my breast.

All too soon and not quickly enough did it come to an end. The airship gave one final lurch as it docked at Beacon Academy and Jaune was startled awake. His head bolted from my shoulder and he leapt to his feet, hand coming around to press down on the pauldron on his left shoulder.

Crocea Iras. One of the two heirlooms we'd taken with us when we ran away and the one Jaune held onto. It was a white pauldron with golden trim that covered his whole shoulder and went about halfway down his bicep. As it was now, it didn't look like much but its potential wasn't to be underestimated. Very much like my twin brother, making the two a perfect match for each other.

That was the only armor he wore, otherwise dressed in Beacon's suit again. He wouldn't admit it, but my brother was more gung-ho for our arrival than I had seen him in a long time. It made sense. This was what he always wanted, after all.

"Relax." I mumbled, standing up and stretching. Every joint I had made audible pops, my stiff body finally loosening after having been stuck in the same position for hours. "We're here." I looked up at the luggage compartment with obvious intent, but didn't bother reaching for it. I was far too short, my brother standing damn near a full head over me.

"Finally," Jaune said as if he hadn't been the one sleeping the whole time and had to suffer every hour of the journey counting the seconds. Again, I considered slapping him but that would hardly be in my best interest as he handled my suitcase, pulling it down from the storage container. "I'll take care of this." He didn't hand it to me, instead only passing one item over. "You can hold onto this."

Crocea Mors. The other heirloom we took. It was once the sword belonging to our great-great grandfather. Now it was mine. When we first ran away, the sword had been getting old and worn. After rather serendipitously (for us anyways) coming across a fallen Huntsman, we had been able to scavenge some materials and pay someone to make some improvements. The pommel and hilt guard were tipped with gold, giving it an almost sacred feel, the handle a sapphire blue like our eyes. The blade itself was locked inside a pure white sheath that almost seemed to deflect any and all filth that might have tried to cling to it.

I took the sword and the leather-strap it was attached to and placed one end of the strap over my left shoulder so it ran diagonally across my torso, sitting directly between my breasts and partially obscuring the Pumpkin Pete mascot of the hoodie. The bottom I connected around my waist like a belt, knotting the strings together to keep it secure. The sword pressed down against my back, its heavy weight a comfort. I couldn't say I was particularly fond of the weapon, but it had saved me numerous times in the past already and so was something I tolerated considerably more than certain other things.

"Shall we go?" Jaune asked as soon as I finished, holding his suitcase in one hand and mine in the other. I said nothing, only nodding and the two of us set out. Not like he would have heard me even if I did bother to speak, the dull roar of the people all around us beginning to give me a headache. The herd of mindless sheep bottlenecked at the exit to the ship, everyone slowing to a crawl and adding further to my irritation. I just wanted to escape this damn deathtrap already.

Light blindingly filtered in through the door and obscured my vision from the outside world until the very moment we stepped through. Immediately after and the grandiose view of Beacon Academy came into sight, its towering spires and detailed architecture surely a sight to behold to anyone that actually cared. I was not such a person.

This was a new environment for me and my brother. And I was not a fan of new. We had always lived well outside the kingdoms and their swarms of people. Beacon Academy may not have been labelled as a city, but it certainly appeared to have the population of one, especially to farm-town hicks like us. People walked every which way, some of them clearly students in uniforms like what Jaune was currently wearing or the one in my suitcase, others Huntsmen here to pick their next mission. Others still looked like businessmen and politicians, everyone walking down the massive pathway either towards the main conglomeration of buildings or away from it and towards the docks.

Everyone except one girl only slightly taller than me and perhaps a little bit younger. She stood out in the crowd already because she was the only one not moving, instead just standing still. That is, if you could call any part about this girl still. While it was true she wasn't moving in any particular direction, her whole body was practically vibrating with boundless energy. Her combat boots rocked back and forth as she swung in place, one hand fiddling with the bottom of her black dress and the other tugging at the hem of a red cloak that billowed in the wind.

She could only have been a student here, a slightly tilted belt hanging on her waist and holding a multitude of Dust shells. A mechanized contraption of some sort was hooked to the back of the same belt, no doubt one of the transforming doodads that was all the rage amongst Huntsmen nowadays. Her mostly black hair was tinged with some red that might have been dyed, but I was more inclined to think it was natural and she had a fairly babyish face. The most striking feature about this girl however, were her eyes.

They were silver.

I mentioned earlier that among the three things I liked, one of them was fairy tales. The thing about fairy tales that most people don't know is… they are very real. At least, I know one of them for sure has to be real. The others I'm less sure about since I don't have any proof, but that never stopped me from believing anyways. Unless Jaune and I were an exception and I wasn't nearly childish enough to believe that was the case. Which meant others had to be real. In a way, I became obsessed with trying to find other examples of fairy tales brought to life in the modern day. Regrettably, living on the huge continent of Anima and in an area so few of other people made the odds of me ever meeting one damn near statistically impossible. So the only thing I could do was read about them. Until now that is.

As expected of the famous Beacon Academy, the moment I arrived and I was greeted by a Silver-eyed Warrior. Literally.

The girl's silver eyes widened the moment she saw us and she gave a huge, open-mouthed grin while waving her arm so quickly it became a blur. "Hey-! Over here-!" She held onto the end of her words, as if we couldn't somehow hear her booming, shrill voice without doing so.

There was a loud hum and the girl burst into a pile of roses. For a second and I thought I was starting to hallucinate again, yet another terribly exciting side-effect of sleep-deprivation. Only when the girl appeared directly in front of us a-blink-of-the-eye later did I realize it was her Semblance.

"I found you!" The girl clapped her hands together in rapid succession, hopping in place and looking back and forth between us like she didn't know who to address first. Geh, these hyperactive types were the kind I was the worst with. Silver-eyed Warrior or not, I already didn't want to deal with this girl.

Shuffling my feet, I shifted ever so slightly closer to my brother. He picked up on what I was doing right away and stepped forward and a little to the right, partially obstructing me from this new girl's line of sight. I don't even think she noticed as Jaune set the suitcases down and extended his hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Jaune Arc and this is my twin sister, Joan." He greeted her just like a normal, well-adjusted member of society.

"Ruby Rose, at your service." The girl took his hand in both of hers and shook with the same amount of excitement and vigor that I imagine she did everything in life. "Professor Ozpin sent me to greet you. Promised to give me the whooooole day off from classes if I showed you around." No wonder she was so bouncy even on a Monday. Ozpin had given her an extra day weekend.

"Sounds like a win/win." Jaune had yet to let go of her hand and she just kept right on shaking it. "You get the day off from class and we get a cute girl to escort us around all day." His face twitched, a direct result of the swift kick to the back of the ankle I had just given him.

"Ah, shucks!" Ruby grinned from ear to ear, rubbing the back of her head and twisting her body back and forth with exaggerated motion. "I'm really nothing special. Wait until you meet my big sister. Or my partner. You'll be wishing one of them came to show you around instead." Finally, a little bit of self-derision from this girl. And here I was afraid she was going to be nothing but sunshine and rainbows the whole time.

"Nonsense," Jaune continued his smooth-talk, despite the fact that I knew he was bluffing his way through it. I could tell by the twitching smile, his mouth fighting to show its naturally terrified gape whenever talking with a cute member of the opposite sex or the fact that he closed his eyes so she couldn't see the abundant desire to turn and run in the other direction. "You must be the cutest girl in the whole school." I went to kick him again. "Well, at least second now that my sister is also attending." Okay, I would let him off the hook this time.

"Well…" Her cheeks tinted with pink and she placed a finger on her chin, pantomiming the act of thinking hard about something. Which I got the impression wasn't very often for her. "I guess I am pretty adorable. Why else would Ozpin pick me for this mission?"

Jaune chuckled and pat her rather chummily on the shoulder for a girl he just met. "So where are we off to first?" He asked and it was only then I realized he somehow managed to perfectly distract the girl from focusing on me at all. Not bad, I acknowledged. I wished he hadn't gotten so touchy-feely with her to make it happen, but not bad.

"Right, how about your room first?" Ruby bent down to pick up one of the suitcases but Jaune was faster and lifted them both. "That way you can drop off your things first? Sit down and relax if you want?" She didn't appear bothered and instead spun on the heel of her boots, marching off with an almost annoying pep in every step that she took.

"That sounds great." Jaune followed after and I shuffled just behind him, reaching forward and grabbing the hem of his suit jacket between my thumb and index finger while we travelled.

Perhaps inevitably, we only made it a part of the way before her attention landed on me. Or more accurately, I got the feeling she was looking past me and at the hilt of the sword peaking over my shoulder. "What's your sword's name?" She asked, confirming my suspicion.

"It's Crocea Mors." Jaune answered without delay. Ruby didn't even appear concerned that it wasn't me that answered, instead looking up at Jaune with wide-eyed curiosity. "It's kind of old, our great-great grandfather fought with it in the last war. We upgraded it some and made some modifications to fit Joan's fighting style, but it's pretty much just a sword. Nothing special."

"Oh." His answer appeared to deflate her enthusiasm some. I had no doubt now she was one of those weapon-obsessed kind of Huntresses of whom I had met from time to time. There was nothing particularly wrong with that and the few I had met gave me some really good tips and pointers when it came to wielding a sword, but they also always had the same reaction when finding out that this sword wasn't somehow also a gun.

"What about you?" Jaune turned the question back on her, resparking her dimmed enthusiasm and doubling it. She spent the next several minutes rambling about her weapon, which was some kind of rifle, sniper, and scythe all rolled into one compact form. It was all a tad excessive if you asked me and after the first couple transformations I quit paying attention.

It would have been far more interesting if she would talk about her silver eyes, but there was no way I could just ask her about that. I mean, I could but that sounded far too troublesome and if she didn't actually know anything then the price paid of having to speak to her wouldn't be worth the reward. I would just ask my brother to bring it up with her next time. They seemed to be getting along well enough. On second thought, maybe I shouldn't ask him. No need to give him a reason to seek her out.

"But man…" Ruby drawled, seemingly done speaking about her weapon as she clipped it back to her waist. "It's really kind of great to get some new faces around here again. I was getting kind of lonely after everyone from the tournament went home." What she really meant to say was she was disappointed she didn't have a surplus of unsuspecting victims to interrogate about their weapons. "Ozpin told me he invited the two of you personally too, which is a relief. Considering the last group of transfer students had a crazy terrorist lady trying to stop communications between the Kingdoms and all."

Jaune and I shared a brief look before he turned back to her. "Umm… what?" He asked just stupefied enough for the both of us. Only then did motormouth seem to realize the crazy- and probably confidential- crap she just uttered.

"Oh- uhhh… that was nothing never mind. I'm just rambling." Ruby began fanning at her face, adjusting the red cloak and giggling so awkwardly I would have thought she was related to us by blood. "Is it hot today or what? I mean jeez, it's almost winter already and we're still having scorchers. Crazy, isn't it?" A sudden gust of wind blew through, causing goosebumps to cover the exposed part of my legs between my torn jean shorts and navy blue, knee-high stockings. "Uhh…" That excuse thwarted cruelly by Mother Nature herself, Ruby looked around hurriedly for something else to distract our attention.

We of course knew about the attack here in Vale during the Vytal Tournament. Everyone with so much as a radio had heard about it and it was impossible not to realize something major had happened after the Grimm attacks spiked briefly. What we didn't know were the intentions of those who started the attack or that it could have possibly been an inside job by one of the other Academies. That added a whole new layer to things I hadn't even considered before.

It was almost painful watching this bumbling girl try and fail to cover up her mistake. Something I could at least sympathize with. So I nodded to my brother, who had yet to say something on account of seeing if I wanted to press the issue or let it be. While I was sure he was curious himself, it was far more clear to me that he also wanted to put the poor girl out of her misery. It would have been good to get more information about our new home and Ozpin sent the perfect person to exploit for it, but I wasn't going to force my brother into putting someone through that.

Jaune flashed me a quick smile of thankfulness that sent my heartbeat racing and then jogged a couple steps ahead like an overly excited tourist. "Now _that_ is a pretty cool statue!" He proclaimed with genuine excitement, of course picking something he wouldn't have to lie about.

It was such a Jaune-thing to like too, the statue depicting a Huntsman and Huntress standing triumphantly over the bodies of defeated Grimm. It exemplified all the traits in Huntsmen that he wanted to emulate: Their overwhelming strength against the darkness, the confidence in themselves he so desperately sought, and a symbol of safety for everyone around you.

I saw something very different when looking at this monument. To me: It was a sign of their hubris, their willingness to trample over those they deemed beneath you, and the complete disregard humans had for things they did not understand. Jaune and I may have been twins, but we had very different outlooks on humanity and life.

It wasn't like I wanted to be this way. If anything, I would much rather share in Jaune's optimistic views and believe everyone meant for us to be well, no matter what choices we made. One of us had to be the realist though and I couldn't bear to let my brother become like me. His innocent optimism was one of the many things about him I loved and it wasn't like I was a complete nihilist. After all, what kind of self-proclaimed realist believed in fairy tales at eighteen years of age?

Ruby's face brightened, whether she realized Jaune was giving her an out or not I did not know but it didn't dampen her reaction either way. "I know, right!? It's so awesome. I want to be just like them some day." She skipped to the front of the statue and spun around, taking a pose similar to the stone Huntress above her.

"You said it!" Jaune nodded in feverish agreement, dropping our luggage and posing next to her. His eyes beamed across at me, silently begging me for the obvious favor. I didn't fight the urge to roll my eyes but at the same time dug into my jeans pocket for my scroll.

I held the device up, making my intent to take the picture obvious. The two of them held the pose a little longer and gave duplicate award-winning grins. I could not fucking believe it. This girl's photo smile was just as atrocious as my own twin's. It was a miracle the screen of my scroll didn't shatter having to take in all that awkwardness all at once. With an audible click I took the picture and the smiles, to everyone in the vicinities immediate relief, slipped from their faces.

"Can I see, can I see?" Ruby was next to me faster than I could blink, linking an arm through mine and pressing her cheek so close it meshed with my unruly blonde locks.

"Oh, this is so great… thank you!" Get off me. "Can you send it to me? Would that be okay?" Get off. Get off. Get off. "We have to exchange numbers first. That wouldn't be a problem, would it?" Get off. Get off. Get off. Get off. Get off. Get off. Get off. Get off. Get off. "Joan?"

"Here, let me do it." Jaune snagged the scroll from my hand and Ruby finally released her hold on me to skip around closer to him. "Sorry about that, my sister isn't very good with technology. She barely even knows how to take a picture, let alone send a message to anyone or add them to her contacts. The only person she ever had to contact before was me." All of this was true, of course. He just excluded the part about her proximity giving me a major panic attack just now.

My chest heaved as if I had run a marathon and my nostrils flared. It was near impossible to keep from breathing out my mouth, but subtly was hardly important anymore. Ruby may have been slow in the head, but even she was starting to pick up that something about me was odd and that I hadn't spoken a single word since we met. She seemed polite enough not to say anything and instead pulled out her scroll. Jaune first exchanged contact information with her using my scroll and then did it again with his.

Her scroll made a small ding as he sent her the picture I had taken and only after that did he return mine to me. I made a small grunt that was meant to be interpreted as gratitude and pocketed the device. Only for it to buzz immediately after, the vibration giving me a startled jolt. I fished it back out to find an unread message pending.

It took me several seconds of deep concentration to figure out how to slide the message open and view it. Ruby's name appeared at the top of the screen, my second and most recent contact. Below that was the picture Jaune had sent her for me and below that were five simple words: _Thank you for the photo._

A moment later and my scroll buzzed again, a new textbox appearing and pushing the others up. _Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I'm not actually very good at meeting new people either. My big sister told me to just be forward and we could all become friends. I guess I overdid it? I hope you'll forgive me and that we can still be friends? I really want to get along with you!_

I glanced up from the scroll. Ruby was grinning at me, but it was a wavering attempt and any second it might fall back into an anxious frown. Her eyes looked almost like a kicked dog. I tried so hard not to sigh but failed and ended up staring down at her message again for another full thirty seconds before awkwardly thumbing in a short, simple phrase.

 _Me too._

I didn't think it was very profound or anything, but the immediate light that filled her silver eyes when her scroll beeped and she read my message would have made you think I gave her an early Christmas present. Damn it. In the end and I just couldn't detest an innocent girl like this, especially one that reminded me so much of my own twin. I guess this meant I was going to sort her into the group of things I tolerated with varying amounts of indifference.

"It's settled." Ruby decided, turning back to my brother to talk verbally with him. "I'm going to be cheering for the both of you during your initiation fight today."

There was a brief pause. Jaune and I looked at one another just like before when Ruby said something she shouldn't have. And just like before, Jaune looked back down at her and asked, "Wait, what?"

This time, however, Ruby tilted her head and looked obviously perplexed instead of horrified mute. "Ozpin didn't tell you?" She asked with a dubious expression. "Everyone who comes to Beacon has to pass initiation, even transfer students. The process is a little different from what I did since you're coming in the middle of the year and the two of you are being matched with another team for a tournament style battle."

This was the first either of us had heard of this, I'm sure. I looked back at Jaune, silently trying to ask him if there had been some document or paper he hadn't shown me or perhaps had forgotten about but he was too busy sweating with nerves to pay any attention. It wasn't preferable, but I needed answers so I started tapping into my scroll again.

 _Who are we fighting?_ I asked.

Ruby's scroll beeped and she read the message. She started to type for a second before stopping, looking up at me and asking, "Is out loud okay?" I nodded. "You're being matched up against team PRDS."

"Paradise?" Jaune enunciated to make sure we both heard her correctly, the word bringing the color green to mind. "Are they any good?" For some reason he looked at me, but all I could do was shrug. How was I supposed to be expected to know anything about the teams here at Beacon?

"You guys really are out of the loop..." Ruby's expression was becoming more and more horrified and it was beginning to look like she was taking pity on us. Wonderful, here for a few minutes and I was being pitied by a girl younger than I am. "Do you at least know the name Pyrrha Nikos?"

Again we both looked at each other. Again we both shrugged.

"Pyrrha is the leader of the team and well…" Ruby hesitated and I was starting to have a sinking feeling in the bottom of my gut. "Even though the whole festival ended early, everyone pretty much agrees-

"She's the unofficial champion of this year's Vytal Tournament."


	3. The Vytal Tournament Champion

**AN:** Here again with another chapter. Thanks again to Wildstraydog for being my beta.

So I know a lot of you are probably wondering by this point, but yes, this whole story is going to be from Joan's PoV. It's yet another reason I was hesitant to start this and while I also did consider doing this from Jaune's point of view instead, I decided to stick with my original plan. I don't think Jaune's internal monologues would quite convey the grit and sarcasm I wanted to tell this story in without drastically altering his character. Joan is also the more proactive of the two in certain aspects, such as their relationship, and I think that ended up being my biggest deciding factor.

There may be a couple instances where it isn't Joan's PoV, but if there is I have resolved to write those in third-person omniscient rather than anyone in particular's point of view. I'm still deciding if scenes like that will even be necessary and probably won't until I get further in, but at the moment I am leaning against them. It will just depend on what's best for conveying information to you, the reader, and if I do use them they will be very, very scarce.

I had a couple reviews ask who the others on Pyrrha's team will be and I also had a couple reviews guess correctly. The answer is in this chapter so I'll let you read to find out.

* * *

 **Twin's Game**

The First Day (Part II)

 _The Vytal Tournament Champion_

* * *

Being the champion is kind of a big deal.

Doesn't really matter what it is you're the champion of. If you're the champion… it means you're damn good at something. So good that you're better than everyone else.

Take pig-racing for example. It was pretty popular in our little neck of the woods growing up. I think it was kind of a farming town tradition. Most people seem to dislike your average pig. They smell, they're loud, they make a mess everywhere they go, and they're kind of just assholes in general. Yet the moment you were entering that one pig into the tournament and suddenly everyone loved it.

My brother and I were no exceptions.

We hated having to tend to the pigs. Except for one. Every year we counted down the days until father would decide which pig would enter the race. We used to take bets on which one he would chose, often taking a little extra care of our own choice to try and make it somehow more presentable. Then the day would arrive and no matter which father chose, that one became our favorite. The others we had shown special favor before were forgotten. Every day we made sure it was properly fed, washed, and taken care of to ensure its chances of winning. And we would kind of half-ass our jobs with the rest of them too, but always after.

And if it won? Well that little plump son of a bitch was living the high life for the rest of its days. Kids would come from miles to see it, pet it, massage its belly. It would eat all the food it ever wanted, get fat, reproduce like crazy, grow old, and die a peaceful death. All because it hauled in this big blue ribbon.

All because it was a champion and that made it worthy of respect.

You know what we did to the losers? The ones that couldn't become champions?

Slit their throats. I can still remember their ugly little squeals that slowly gave way to gurgles as they choked on their own blood. I remember watching their legs spasm for minutes before it finally stopped. If only their legs had moved that fast when they were running, perhaps maybe they would have won. Little useless piggy that couldn't run as fast as the neighbor hog was only good to us as ham on the table. Such is the life of the losers of our world.

I digress, sorry about that. The farmer's daughter in me sometimes comes out a little strongly. Point is, being the champion is a big deal and the bigger the championship, the bigger the respect.

So what's the biggest championship in Remnant? Ask anyone and they'll all give you the same answer: The Vytal Festival Tournament.

What was it that made the Vytal Tournament so special, so revered that it would be the champion of championships? Well, for starters it was a tournament fought by Huntsmen-in-training. There was no more well-respected occupation in all of Remnant than the Huntsmen. Every child grew up on tales of their exploits and every single one of us without fail wanted to become one when we grew up. Yes, that included me. I wasn't always such a cynic.

Even when you became older, most people still wanted to be a Huntsmen. Who didn't dream of having super-powers; sprinting around with great speed, jumping over high walls, shrugging off a powerful blow from your enemy and then cutting them down with one mighty strike? It was okay to admit it. After all, it sounds pretty badass.

Too bad there was a difference between dreams and realities and one day most people just had to accept reality. Being a Huntsmen was a difficult life. The mortality rate was high, injuries were severe, and the training brutal. It wasn't something just anyone could do or should even really want to do. It was far easier and far safer just to live out your life safely and follow the path of least resistance.

Which is what most people did. They gave up on their dreams and they settled. And that was precisely what made the Huntsmen so easy to respect. These were the people who didn't give up, who didn't settle, and who went on to become heroes that could one day save us all. They were the personification of our failed dreams brought to life to defend us.

And the Vytal Tournament put these dreams-come-to-life front and center to fight for all our amusement. All four of the most prestigious academies get together and put their best against one another in an all out brawl. Forged from the fires of fighting their peers, the hero of tomorrow appears.

The strongest and most well-respected champion of them all.

It was exactly such a person who was to be my and Jaune's opponent.

Just fucking great.

If I was going to nitpick, I would talk about the fact that she hadn't actually _won_ the tournament and so wasn't really the champion of anything. The only issue with following that train of thought was- everyone acknowledged her as the unofficial winner regardless. Which was even more terrifying than if she had just won.

Huntsmen and Huntresses are, generally speaking, proud people by nature. You almost have to be in order to become one. The thing about people with pride is, they don't usually take setbacks very gracefully and they're usually the last to admit defeat. For every single one of these people to unanimously agree that Pyrrha Nikos was the champion without her having to claim the crown for herself… that was really fucking scary.

It meant they all acknowledged her strength without having to go up against her themselves. The gap was just that huge that even people overflowing with pride could admit that she was their better and not feel the slightest bit of shame in having done so.

What did Ozpin hope to accomplish by matching us against such a person and her team? If he was going to make us go through initiation to test our skills, wouldn't it make more sense to select the most average students possible? What he was doing was like throwing us at the final boss on the hardest difficulty without even giving us a chance to play the tutorial.

Could there be consequences if we lost? What it we performed so poorly he kicked us out today? It wasn't like I was exactly thrilled to be here but the very notion would crush my brother, might even kill him. He and I would become just like all those little useless piggy's that couldn't stand up to the champion.

There was a jolt. My pocket buzzed and I fished for the scroll inside. As you might have guessed, it was Ruby again. _Good luck!_ was all her message said.

I didn't respond, instead looking up at the packed stands surrounding the combat ring my brother and I stood in. I tried to find Ruby, who I had no doubt was screaming her lungs out for us, but it was a fruitless endeavour. As to be expected of Beacon, but everything here was massive and filled with the latest technology. Compared to our farm and it was like I stepped into one of my science fiction novels.

The ring itself was a slightly elevated platform and while standing on it I could feel a small tingle, like static electricity flowing through every pore of my body. This whole arena was filled with Dust beneath the surface. Not just the arena, this whole room.

All around us were tall walls, the only entrance and exit on either side being a small hallway, one of which we had come from. Ruby had escorted us as far as the locker room at the other end of that hall, having already given us as much of a tour as we had time for. It didn't even feel like I was able to take anything in, however, the sights of Beacon filtering by and being immediately forgotten as our initiation loomed closer and closer.

In the locker rooms, Jaune and I didn't need to change, already having our twin heirlooms equipped and ready to go. Jaune continued to wear his Beacon uniform, almost as if refusing to part with it and obstinately clinging onto it like a child with a safety blanket. The same way I did with his Pumpkin Pete hoodie of which I was still wearing.

He was tugging at his left sleeve, snagging the hand-stitched jacket of his uniform beneath the white and gold-trimmed pauldron that was Crocea Iras. A nervous tick he had developed while hunting for Grimm that would appear to have extended to battles against other people as well.

Coming to Beacon had been everything for him at one point in time. Of the four Huntsmen Academies that trained the future generation of guardians and entered its students in the Vytal Tournament, it was the one he had always been most fond of. Fond was perhaps putting it lightly, as he preferred this one over even Haven Academy on our home continent.

If my nerves were this bad and I didn't even care about whether or not I remained at Beacon, I could only imagine what he was feeling right now. Jaune had given up everything for me when I asked him to run away. While it was true we were here now, he wouldn't have done it at all if he didn't think coming here could somehow help me. That was why I had to give this fight everything I had. No matter who our opponent. For him.

The walk down the long, narrow hallway had been Hell, the loud drone of the audience being funneled inside and echoing all around us in an unintelligible cacophony. Which brought me to the most disturbing point of all this.

There was an audience. Not just kids being forced to sit in class either, like I would have assumed, but the whole damn stadium was packed full. They were all just a mass of shadows from down here, but the little bits of business and political conversation I was barely able to pick up made me assume they couldn't all just be students. Apparently they just let anyone sit in on these practice fights. Which made sense if you thought about it from a business perspective.

The Vytal Tournament was like a taste of who to look out for and what talent to invest in for the future. If you wanted to follow up on that, where better to come than where the students were mentored and trained? See how they did when the eyes of the world weren't upon them?

The frugal farmer part of me felt her mouth water at the idea. Just think about it. If you could get the latest icon, the person every man, woman, and child associated as the face of their future protector on every carton of eggs you packaged… sales would sky rocket. It wasn't like I was the only one to think of such a thing. Jaune's favorite cereal from which he won this hoodie I wore had sponsored some Huntress-in-training and had her on the face of every box. I couldn't remember her name, but it wasn't like it was important anyways.

It was good business for Beacon too and no doubt everyone was here because they heard their champion would be fighting. I almost wondered if that was the real reason Ozpin matched us against this Pyrrha Nikos. If so, Ozpin was far more business-savvy than I had given him credit for. I could almost appreciate that if it wasn't for the fact that it was us and not some other poor, unwitting saps being matched against her.

I might have also been upset to find out this fight was likely going to make the news on account it meant our family might hear about it, but I almost immediately dismissed the notion. The chances of them hearing about something happening on a foreign continent was negligible to start with, considering how little they actually cared to pay attention to the news of any kind unless it was pertaining to Grimm movements. Even if they did hear, would they even care? They were probably happy the two of us weren't causing them any more trouble with all the weird rumors.

While my brother and I faced the crowd, trying and failing to find the only familiar face we knew, there was tall monitor hanging behind us. It was still blank and not currently displaying any information but I imagine that once the fight started, it would have the status on us and our opponents so the audience could follow the match. No sooner did I think this and the screen made a small whirl, the background lighting up with a bright blue and left side displaying portraits of myself and my twin. Next to the portraits were our names and below that our Aura levels in two long green bars.

I didn't really get how it was able to do that, but I at least knew it must have been pulling the information from my scroll somehow. The little doodads were much more than just a communication device. They could read all kinds of vital information about you straight from your Aura and relay that information to anyone you wanted. It was handy… for Jaune at least. I never really figured out all the intricacies of it so just let him handle that stuff.

The whole crowd quieted the moment they took notice of this change. The transformation would have been downright eerie if not for one thing. "Whoooo! Do your best Jaune, Joan!" Three guesses who that was.

There wasn't another peep from the area her voice came from, so either she realized her mistake or someone nearby had forced her quiet… I was more inclined to believe the latter. Without her shrill voice filling the air anymore, however, the whole room was dead silent.

Ever hear the expression about being able to hear a pin drop?

Well, this wasn't quite like that. Even when not talking, a room packed with this many people and there was going to be some ambient sound. So while we probably wouldn't have been able to hear that pin, there was the distinct sound of something tapping the floor of the hallway opposite of the one Jaune and I entered from. Everyone's heads turned towards the hall, waited with bated breath for their champion to emerge.

The reverberating smacks got louder and louder until finally the moment arrived. And some unusually tall, old dude with silver hair, shaded spectacles, and a snazzy green cowl peeking over a black suit appeared. In his right hand was the cane that had been used to make all that racket. The whole crowd let out a collective, disappointed sigh and went right back to talking amongst themselves as if nothing ever happened.

Everyone except my twin brother. "Ozpin." He whispered that one word in unveiled awe and I had to double take. This lanky, old geezer was the headmaster of Beacon Academy? The person who supposedly stood at the head of the entire Huntsmen community, the one every other headmaster answered to, and my brother's idol?

I tried sizing him up as he approached us, but it was no good. I didn't have the sense for what made Huntsmen spectacular and to me he just looked like your average Joe Schmoe if not for his unusual height and silver hair. Although now that he was closer, his face was far younger than I assumed given the color of his hair. Although in a world like Remnant where even blue hair was possible, I should have known better to try and guess his age from that alone.

"Mister and Miss Arc," Ozpin greeted, stopping in front of us and planting his cane on the ground between both feet, his hands coming to rest on the top of it. "Welcome to Beacon Academy. I am very pleased that you were able to reconsider and accept my request." His voice too was softer than I would have thought, sounding more like it belonged to some scientist in a lab than a Grimm-slaying monster of a man. "I trust everything went okay with Miss Rose and that you two haven't yet had any concerns?"

Oh, there were concerns alright. I kicked my brother in the side of the shin, breaking him from his star-struck spell long enough to glance into my blue eyes. There was a momentary spark, a connection that formed between us and causing our blue eyes to shine. I cut the connection as soon as it formed, not needing it for longer than that to convey my intent.

Jaune's face twisted as if he tasted something bitter. There were another several seconds of silence between the three of us where he weighed the pros and cons of speaking on my behalf. The whole time Ozpin said nothing, just looking down at us with an almost knowing smile. Finally, my brother made the only choice we both knew he could and turned to face his personal hero.

"So umm…" He pulled at his tie as if it had been responsible for the nervous squeak in his voice. "The Vytal Tournament Champion, huh? That's a, uh- pretty high bar. You must have some high expectations for us." He capped off with an anxious chuckle.

"I know it seems odd." Ozpin said as if "odd" was the most appropriate word he could possibly come up with. It was not even remotely accurate, by the way. I preferred to think of it as downright evil. "However, I have a feeling that after the match is over you will see why I wanted the two of you to face off against Miss Nikos and her team." I really didn't think so myself, seeing as it wasn't likely to be much of a fight.

"I uhh... don't suppose by any chance-" A small bit of hope entered Jaune's voice while he asked a question that would embarrass an actual Huntsmen. "That you asked her to go easy on us?" Not that there was anything wrong with being hopeful, considering the odds we were against.

The headmaster smirked, adjusting his glasses so I couldn't get a read on his eyes. "I've asked Miss Nikos to fight to her full capabilities." Jaune let out an almost inaudible whimper. "However, she is also reluctant to do so knowing that the results of this match will directly impact your enrollment." With that, I understood the purpose of this crowd now. Pyrrha Nikos couldn't purposely hold back with so many eyes on her, not with all their expectations for the champion resting on her shoulders. Ozpin may not have looked impressive, but he was one sly bastard, I would give him that.

"But there is a way for us to win… right?" Jaune asked. At least one of us was optimistic, even if it was only barely.

"Of course." Ozpin lifted and tapped his cane, making a loud thunk. "You don't have to beat Miss Nikos directly. The only thing in this match you have to do is gather more points than her team. I'm actually confident you two will do just fine." Unless those points were based on how splendidly we got our asses kicked, I seriously had my doubts.

Not that I would know since Ozpin seemed to have deliberately not mentioned how exactly to go about gathering those points. Was it something like number of hits we landed? Or was this going to be different than a straight-up fighting match like I originally assumed? It had to be something doable… something that was somehow in our favor. A handicap of some sort. Otherwise there was no point. Whatever it was, I got the feeling Ozpin hadn't informed Pyrrha Nikos or her team of the win condition either.

Most tournaments were fought with a pretty standard set of rules. You could win by either incapacitate your opponent, knocking them out of the ring, or dropping their Aura into the danger zone. It was also possible to force them into surrendering but that was pretty rare. Even if Jaune and I were eliminated, however, so long as we met whatever this point condition was we would still be the "winners" in the strictest sense of the word. First we just needed to figure out what it was.

Jaune didn't get the chance to ask before the dull roar of the crowd suddenly erupted into a deafening cheer. Their champion was here. We hadn't noticed while being distracted by Ozpin and our own fears, but four others had walked out from the same hallway the headmaster himself had come from.

We got our first real look of who it was we would be facing. Their names and faces displayed on the screen opposite of ours, going in reverse order of their team name from top to bottom. The first was a man named Sky Lark. Matching the portrait on the screen to the face on the ground, I began to size up our opposition.

Sky Lark had slicked back blue hair and a cocky grin. His armor appeared to be made of some kind of leather and he held a halberd longer than he was tall. The thick blue blade on the end glinted off the light and like most modern weapons, the tip had a gun barrel of some sort.

Dove Bronzewing was next on the list and of all the boys, he looked the most harmless. Don't misunderstand, he was probably the most well-built of them but his soft face and combed-over light brown hair made him look more like a teddy bear than a fighter. He also wore leather armor and there was a sword hooked to his belt. No doubt it too had a gun feature of some sort.

Russel Thrush was the last male on their team and he… well, he looked like a punk. Green hair in a mohawk and only visible armor a spiked leather pauldron. He held a dagger in either hand with Dust revolvers near the handles but from here it was impossible to tell which color Dust he had loaded into them.

Which brought us to their leader and the one everyone was here to see. The moment my eyes settled on her and I knew who she was immediately. "Son of a bitch-" I didn't even realize I spoke until after the words had left my mouth.

Pyrrha Nikos was the girl on Pumpkin's Pete cereal. I had to look at her face no less than fifty times in our household as Jaune tore off the box tops to mail them in for this hoodie. More importantly, she wasn't just the unofficial champion of the Vytal Tournament. She was also the three time reigning Mistral Regional Champion, making her a real genuine winner and not just someone who claimed the title by happenstance.

She was dressed like an ancient Mistrali Goddess, with bronze armor that left plenty of skin visible and a golden tiara that held together her flaming red-hair in a ponytail. On her back was a circular shield and the handle of a red sword peeking over her shoulder. She was absolutely stunning, as much as I didn't want to admit it, and my heart started pounding just looking at her from the other side of the arena.

"This would be so awesome if she wasn't about to kick our asses." Jaune recognized her too, although probably only as his cereal idol and not the champion of our own closest kingdom's local tournament.

While we studied our opponents, Pyrrha stared back. Her eyes like emeralds locked with mine for a brief moment and I know she did the same with Jaune. There was certainly a sense of apprehension coming from her, but I also got the impression she was taking us just as seriously as we intended to take her. We were unknown variables to her and she had no intention of underestimating us.

The same couldn't be said for the rest of her team. The three men hadn't so much as glanced at us yet and instead basked in the cheers of the crowd, waving at them and flexing. I don't think they even realized the cheers weren't for them, but their leader. The team name may have been PRDS but the only name I ever heard until now was Pyrrha Nikos. I didn't even know their names until the screen displayed them.

If we were going to win at all, we were going to have to take advantage of this seeming lack of consideration they had towards us. Just like how Pyrrha Nikos wasn't underestimating us, we couldn't afford to underestimate her team no matter how incompetent they may have looked. The fact of the matter still was they had been training to be Huntsmen under a legitimate institution which was far more than either my twin or I could say.

"Shall we get started?" Ozpin asked, enjoying our reactions. He started to walk towards the center and we followed after him. I don't know when it happened, but I had reached over my shoulder at some point and was gripping the handle of Crocea Mors so tightly that there was almost no circulation left in my fingers.

Pyrrha noticed Ozpin's approach and said something quick to her teammates. They all became serious, turning away from the crowd and following their leader forward to meet us in the center. Finally they seemed to acknowledge us, glancing me up and down before lingering on my brother.

When placed side-by-side, I didn't really look like much which was the same conclusion it seemed like they came to. That was fine and it wasn't exactly wrong. If Jaune and I were to fight one on one there was no way I would ever win. His Semblance, Crocea Iras, and fighting style in general were just a bad match for me. With any luck, that meant they would focus on him first. I didn't like the idea of him getting beat up for my sake, but we were going to need many things to go right here to have a chance.

I almost laughed at myself. I was taking this pretty seriously considering I had almost already given up before and didn't want to be here in the first place. If it was for my brother and his dreams, I would do anything. Even more so considering I had stolen them from him once already.

We stopped walking and PRDS did the same about fifteen feet from us. Neither side had a chance to exchange words yet and it didn't look like we were going to get the chance until after the fight. Because you know, I'm such a chatterbox. Ozpin kept walking until he was halfway between our teams and turned to face the crowd.

"Thank you all for attending today." As he began to address them he walked forward, getting out of the way between us and making his way towards the edge of the arena. "This is a bit unorthodox to make an initiation exam such a public event, but I also know many of you have been eagerly waiting for another chance to see our- even if unofficial- champion fight once again in the ring. So I do hope you'll enjoy this match and take comfort in the knowledge that Beacon is safer than ever."

I wondered how much of what Ozpin said was true. When talking to us, I got the impression he was matching us against PRDS because there was something he wanted _us_ to see, but now he was talking like this whole thing was to reassure the public after that terrorist attack. Show them that Beacon was just as strong as ever and only getting stronger. I suppose there was no reason it couldn't be both.

Not like it mattered. The only thing I should be worried about right now was the fight directly in front of me. I looked again at Pyrrha Nikos, my sapphire blue locking with her emerald green. My hand had yet to leave the handle of Crocea Mors and out of the corner of my eye I saw Jaune had placed the palm of his hand on Crocea Iras.

"Now then, without any further ado-" Ozpin stepped off the arena, leaving just the six of us to fight it out using a set of rules none of us even knew.

"Let the initiation of Jaune Arc and Joan Arc begin."


	4. The Twins vs Team Paradise

**AN:** Thanks again to Wildstraydog for being my beta. He's caught some really silly grammatical blunders on my end throughout so it really is nice to have that second set of eyes.

I've gotten a couple questions about Jaune's weapon already which was to be expected. A pauldron doesn't sound like it makes much of a weapon. So in this chapter you get to see what it does. Don't know if it will live up to your expectations or not, but I like to think it's not as lame as it sounds. Its name is from the Latin base word of "Ira" which translates to something like "anger" in case you were curious.

Ren and Nora are at Beacon somewhere. They just ended up getting placed on a different team than Pyrrha this time around. I do have a cameo for them planned down the line, but they won't be actual characters in this fic. Cardin, I suppose, is somewhere at Beacon too but I don't even plan for him to appear at all. Since I've had it asked a couple times too, but RWBY is all alive and well. The rest of them will be appearing in the next few chapters and they'll have fairly major roles throughout.

* * *

 **Twin's Game**

The First Day (Part III)

 _The Twins vs Team Paradise_

* * *

Crocea Mors and Crocea Iras.

Those were the names of the twin heirlooms we stole from home when we ran away. I feel like "stole" is a bit of an extreme word. After all, what point is there in calling it a family heirloom if you can't even say it's yours to take and use? It certainly wasn't like our father was getting any use out of them anymore.

He used to be a Huntsman, just like his father before him and so on. For circumstances I never understood and never cared to understand, our father retired young, married a farmer's daughter, had eight children, and settled for a life of peace. Honestly, I think our father was kind of brilliant for getting out when he could, but don't ever tell Jaune I said that. We never really saw eye to eye on the subject, if you can imagine.

Point is, since he wasn't using the heirlooms anymore, it only seemed right that we made use of them to protect ourselves. Their most reputable wielder had to have been our great-great-grandfather who had used them to fight in the last Great War - to great effect if the stories are to be believed. The only complication in regards to our grandfather was… well- he fought for the losing side of that war.

So no matter how great on the battlefield he may have been or how upstanding he was when not murdering his enemies, textbooks in general had a tendency to vilify our grandfather like they did all Generals that fought for the losing side. Especially if the losing side was for such concepts as the suppression of free speech and enslaving faunus kind. Not our family's proudest moment in history, I'll give you that.

Regardless of what he did or which side he fought for, no one could deny that he had been an absolute monster on the field of war. Most historians seemed to attribute these two heirlooms as big contributors to that. They may not have been able to do all the fancy things that modern weapons could do, but they were still pretty damn impressive. Even moreso if you considered the era they came from.

Jaune pressed down on the pauldron of Crocea Iras. By itself, the white armor with gold trim covered only his shoulder and about halfway down his bicep. When loaded with Dust, it became so much more. The pauldron contracted ever so slightly, squeezing down on Jaune's shoulder with enough force to cause his face to contort. There was a small hiss and the pauldron began emitting a yellow-colored vapor until it completely enveloped my brother and obscured him from view.

The cloud hung around him for a moment like a nebulous golden fog. Then it collapsed as if he was a singularity pulling in anything that dared to get within its gravitational field. It settled over his clothes and fused with his Aura, solidifying over him and leaving only his head and neck exposed.

Just like that and my twin brother became a knight in shining armor. Literally. The Aura-infused Dust glowed a soft gold and looked as fragile as glass. Anyone that thought they could break through this armor like they could a window was in for a very rude awakening.

I lifted Crocea Mors off my back and held the blade at my side. When our great-great-grandfather wielded this sword it came in two pieces. After sliding the sword from the scabbard, you could then expand the sheath into a shield. That wasn't possible anymore. The sword was locked inside the sheath rather permanently after the modifications I had made to it. I had no need for the shield with my brother always nearby to act as my protector and the sword packed far more power when swung with the combined weight of both pieces.

Just because I had locked it inside a scabbard didn't mean it was dull either. Placing both hands on the sapphire handle I gave a small twist and there was a loud click. The pure-white sides of the sheath popped open and two golden edges slid out and locked in place. It wasn't quite as dramatic a change as what Crocea Iras could do, but I was always fond of the more simple things myself anyways.

With our weapons armed, we were ready for battle.

The three men on Pyrrha's team had all stepped forward but their leader herself had fallen back, slowly edging towards the side of the arena. "You two should feel lucky." Russel Thrush proclaimed, his voice just as sleazy as I would have imagined for a guy with a green mohawk. "My partner doesn't want to embarrass you both by wiping the floor with you before you even get a chance to show your stuff. So we'll be taking care of you first. That means at least try to make this entertaining for the crowd, you got it?"

Oh, I understood just fine alright. That included all the things he didn't say. Ozpin had already told us that Pyrrha was reluctant to fight, knowing that if she beat us it would mean we got kicked out of this academy before we even got a chance to truly attend. She also couldn't afford to throw the fight or hold back with such a huge crowd coming to witness their champion.

By doing it this way, she was able to give us a fighting chance while also not having to sully her own reputation. It would be disappointing for the crowd if their champion didn't fight, but that was better than letting her disgrace herself by holding back against us. Her teammates also seemed to have something to prove and if they fought well, that at least reflected nicely on her as their leader.

I might have been offended, but to be honest I was too relieved for something petty like that. No matter how you looked at this, it was beneficial for us. At least this way we had a chance to gather points, not that we had any idea how to do that. The only thing we could do was fight and hope at the end it all worked out.

"Hey, you ignoring us?" Russel took a threatening step forward.

That was all it took for my brother to react. I didn't even have to look at him to know how he was going to move, a direct result of fighting life and death against the Grimm for the past year. The armor on his forearms changed slightly, glowing short swords forming and elongating past his fists. He moved, charging the three men all by himself while I skipped backwards, my feet not making any sound at all.

It would have been nice if all three of them were distracted by my brother and his glowing armor but that was probably asking for too much. The most I could hope for was two of them. Dove and Sky moved to intercept my brother, but Russel thrust past him.

I don't just mean he was fast, but literally he turned into a green blur and thrust forward. I barely dodged, the tip of his dagger stabbing at where my eye had been not even a full second before.

My feet again made no noise as I landed. Lifting Crocea Mors high over my head, I swung it down overtop Russel's. He had yet to even react, arm still extended from when he stabbed at my face.

It wasn't entirely his fault. The thing about fighting is, you're using all fives senses whether you're aware of it or not. In addition to being able to walk on water as if it were solid ground, my feet also never made any noise at all when moving. I could stomp on the ground as hard as I wanted and you would never hear or feel so much as a thing. That also meant my sneakers didn't make the loud scrapes everyone else's did whilst running around the arena floor.

Russel's brain was waiting to hear that familiar noise. Right now he was trying to figure out where I was through some sort of echo-location. Even though his eyes could see me in his peripherals, his brain hadn't fully committed itself to accepting I was there. Sometimes your eyes played tricks on you, a fact the human brain was well aware of. So it was waiting until it had multiple senses confirming my existence to begin sending warning signals that he was in immediate danger.

Crocea Mors cut through the air, making a sharp whoosh. Unlike my feet, my Semblance did nothing for the rest of my body and actions. So it was only then that Russel's brain was finally able to accept the predicament he found himself in. Warning signals blared so loudly inside his head that I imagined I was able to hear them, his eyes widening to the size of saucers and making his face look even more ridiculous than it already was.

Still, he hadn't been training all this time for nothing. With reflexes I would have thought impossible, he dodged out of the way and performed and series of back flips to place some distance between us. I wasn't quite as quick to react as him and Crocea Mors slammed into the ground, the golden edge digging into the surface and getting wedged stuck.

I made a small grunt and pulled it free quickly enough. Well, actually- it wasn't quickly enough at all and even the couple seconds I had to take focusing on it cost me. Russel closed the distance back to me in a green blur again, his dagger hitting my sword and freezing a whole section of it in a large hunk of ice.

My eyes lingered on the effects of the ice dust a moment longer than necessary. His other dagger struck, slamming into my ribs and deflecting off my Aura with a soft thunk. I stumbled off-balance, refusing to let go of my sword. Russel grinned mockingly, showing off his yellow teeth and twirling the daggers around his fingers like a circus performer. Or more accurately like a Huntsmen with a structured training regime.

I was helpless to do anything but try and defend against his relentless onslaught, twin daggers flying at me faster than a blur. The couple times I did manage to block and he activated the dust loaded into the revolvers. Crocea Mors was turned into a giant ice popsicle. The sword was heavy enough as it was, but the added weight made its burden almost unbearable.

Out of the corner of my eye and I saw Jaune wasn't faring much better. Dove's skin, clothes, and armor had transformed, his whole body turning into a solid bronze that shrugged off all of my twin's blows in a shower of sparks. Every time his attacks failed and Sky struck from a distance, taking advantage of the reach of his halberd to smack him around and force the two of us further apart.

"How do you like that?" Russel cackled, his barrage coming to an end. With that same stupid grin, he looked up at the screen located above the arena that was displaying our Aura bars. The moment he saw mine and the grin slipped from his face, thankfully hiding those disgusting teeth of his. "The Hell?" He asked, voice losing some of its former confidence.

Jaune and I had a lot of Aura, or so I've been told by the few Huntsmen I've met in my life. After all of Russel's efforts just now and I had only lost twenty percent of the total amount, leaving me well into the green still. It probably could have been lower, but I got the impression Russel's attacks had lacked any kind of real raw power and he hadn't been hitting me anywhere vital. He may have had some skills, but it was apparent he was still underestimating me and holding back. That was a mistake.

So was also not better hiding the mechanics behind his Semblance. He had only used it twice, but it was the one time he hadn't used it that gave him away.

With his attention still momentarily on the screen, I began to swing Crocea Mors. His eyes caught the movement out of his peripherals and he raised his daggers to block but I hadn't been aiming for him. My sword was still damn heavy with all the ice clinging to it and if not for my lovely sleep-deprivation dulling my senses, my muscles would have been screaming in agony. Instead, it was just a dull moan they gave as I began to spin my sword like a fan.

The tip of the blade scraped against the floor, causing a shower of sparks and leaving a small gash. I backed up, the rotating blade acting as a deterrent to keep Russel from pressing any closer. It spun faster and faster with every passing second until it was only a blur. Droplets of water began to spray from the melting ice and doused the arena floor. Every foot back I took and the spinning blade created another shower of sparks and left another mark.

By the time I reached fifteen and my arms really were screaming in agony. Pain is a survival instinct. It's your body telling you to stop doing something or that you should avoid it. Having your sense of pain dulled because you didn't get enough sleep wasn't a good thing in the long-run for your overall health and I was going to be feeling the soreness in my biceps for a week to come after this stunt.

It would all be worth it, provided my prediction was right and that this all worked out.

The spinning came to a stop and I rested the tip of Crocea Mors against the ground. Water rolled down the blade and formed a puddle next to my feet, but it wasn't nearly enough. Crocea Mors was still covered in huge blocks of ice. My chest heaved in and at and I desperately gasped for air. I wondered if I would be able to lift the sword again at all. If I couldn't, I was about to lose real quick.

Something Russel also seemed to realize. "You're tough as nails for a girl your size, I'll give you that." He took a step forward, foot coming to stop on the first mark I left between us. "So don't take this the wrong way, but you don't stand a chance against my partner. I'm doing you a favor by taking you out here." He turned into a green blur.

The moment he did and I swung. My arms didn't want to listen to me, but I forced them to work anyways. They hated me for it, but my preparation paid off and I hit a homerun.

Russel's Semblance was a thrust in a literal sense of the word. He could only go in one direction and that was forward. It also appeared to be at a fixed distance of fifteen feet. I knew it must have been this because that had been the length of the space between us when the match started. I also knew he could only go forward because he hadn't used his Semblance to dodge my first attack, otherwise he would have thrust out of bounds.

By placing fifteen marks a foot apart each, I was able to accurately predict where his Semblance would place him without room for error. And just as I predicted, his face appeared right where I was swinging Crocea Mors. I don't think the shit-eating grin he wore had a chance to disappear before the ice chunks shattered against his yellow teeth and sent him flying.

He sailed like a baseball clear over the arena and would have flown directly into the crowd if not for the dust barrier that protected them. Instead he hit that with a thunk loud enough to be heard from where I was standing. The whole crowd let out a collective low groan, Russel no longer able to form such noises with his own mouth. He peeled off the barrier like an old band aid and tumbled head over heels to the floor outside the arena's boundary where he came to land in an unconscious heap.

There was a loud, angry buzz from the loudspeaker and Russel's image on the screen turned gray. One down, just three to go. I don't know if I won because Russel was underestimating me and not taking this seriously, but if that was indeed the case I had pretty much just guaranteed that the rest of them weren't going to make the same mistake.

"Joan! Above you!" My twin shouted.

Now just for future reference, but when someone yells something like "above you" your first instinct should probably be to look up. Don't spend time looking to the source of the voice like an idiot like me would do.

Jaune was desperately trying to fight his way past Dove, but the man made of bronze was proving to be equal in both sturdiness and tenaciousness to my twin and the two had more or less stalemated one another. It took me another second of looking at the scene to realize that Sky Lark was no longer in my line of sight. It took another second still to put together that him not being immediately visible had a direct correlation to my brother's warning shout.

By this point I didn't have time to look up at all and just leapt in a random direction, bringing one hand above my head to protect it. The more preferable protection would have been Crocea Mors, but I wasn't exactly going to be lifting it very quickly with the state my arms were in right now. Even when not holding anything and the arm I raised ached like Hell.

The good news was: Sky missed my head. The bad news: he didn't miss me completely. The tip of his blade slammed into my right shoulder with enough force that I was sent crashing face-first into the ground.

Well fuck. That hurt.

My vision flashed between blurry and white, making it impossible to discern anything. I was at least pretty sure I lost my grip on Crocea Mors. That or I lost my arm and was still in shock so couldn't tell. At the moment and I was going to say the chances were about fifty-fifty either way.

I tried to push up, feeling the palms of both hands press down on the ground. So that much was a relief, knowing I hadn't lost any limbs. Too bad my arms weren't being the most responsive right now. My muscles decided to go on strike, still angry at me for spinning Crocea Mors around while it had a million pounds of ice weighing it down. So I made it maybe a couple inches at most before my face met with the slick arena floor again.

So instead of trying to get up, I settled for rolling over and laying on my back. The bright lights of the ceiling bore into my retina and by the time my vision adjusted I realized my golden blonde hair had tumbled across my face. I blew a couple times, but failed to get the strands away from me and was forced to put my still striking arms to work. They at least obeyed me enough to do a simple task such as that.

"Stay down, you hear me?" An unfamiliar voice that I guessed was Sky Lark's echoed inside my head along with a faint buzz. It was like I was getting bad radio reception inside a cave, despite the fact he was standing just over me.

Now that I could see, I saw the tip of his halberd was hovering just over my throat. His expression was hard to see, his face directly beneath the ceiling lights. If I had to guess, however, I would imagine he wasn't too pleased with me right about now.

If he wanted to end this fight- which I know he did- he pretty much could at any time. In fact, I don't know why he already hadn't. Every second he wasted was just asking for me to find a way out of this situation.

Case in point, no sooner did I think this than there was a loud yell getting only louder by the second. Sky looked up and then skipped out of the way, removing his halberd from my throat. Dove flew over my prone form, momentarily blocking the light as he passed. I lost sight of him, still not able to turn my head enough to track the distance of his remaining flight but I definitely felt the ground shake when he made contact.

"Joan!" Jaune was over me a second later, his hands coming around my waist and hefting me to my feet.

"I'm fine." I lied. The moment he placed me on the ground and I nearly lost my balance, a terrible sense of vertigo causing my head to spin. I had to lean against him just to stay standing, enjoying the warm heat of his glowing armor.

Glancing up at the monitor, I saw my Aura was at an even fifty percent and the bar had turned yellow. That one hit had chucked through thirty percent of my supposedly large Aura. This at least confirmed my theory that Russel had been holding back. Too bad playtime ended the moment I decided to rearrange his face with my sword. Speaking of Crocea Mors, I still hadn't figured out where it was.

I didn't get the chance to look for it either, loud gunshots tearing me from my thoughts. Jaune roughly shoved me out of the way and placed himself directly between me and the path of the bullets. Dove was stumbling back to his feet, gun-sword raised and finger on the trigger. He squeezed a couple more times, unleashing an equal number of bullets. Jaune guarded his face, the only part not covered in armor, and closed the distance back to him.

"I told you to stay down." Sky spoke, reminding me that I still had to deal with him and giving his location away. I turned to him just as he began to crouch into a leaping stance. "I'm not giving you that warning again."

That was just fine with me. Since I had no intention of giving him a warning of any kind in the first place. Warnings were for people that wanted to give their opponent a chance to make a comeback.

Sky jumped, soaring impossibly high into the air even for a Huntsman. It must have been his Semblance and I now understood why I had taken so much damage from his last attack. He had used the momentum of his fall to strengthen his blow. Now that I knew what had happened, I realized how lucky I was to have not been knocked out of the fight right then and there.

Of course, I wasn't exactly in a much better situation this time around and still didn't have my weapon. Something he wasn't going to give me time to collect. Sky had reached the height of his ascension and was beginning to come back down, aiming the tip of his halberd right for me.

So instead of bothering to find Crocea Mors, I instead focused all my attention on my own Semblance. In addition to being able to walk on water and mask my footfalls, it had one more ability. Rather, it would be more accurate to say those first two things were passive traits. I couldn't shut them on or off, they were just always there. A by-product of having this power. The third and final ability was something I had to actively use, however.

The air beneath my feet swirled. It kept building in intensity, hoisting my feet several inches off the ground, lifting the bottom of my hoodie to expose my midriff, and tousling my already untidy golden locks. The pressure reached a breaking point just as Sky had fallen half the distance from the height of his jump.

I pushed down on the swirling wind and it pushed back, launching me skywards. Sky and I flew on a direct collision course with one another. If he was surprised at all, he didn't show it. Instead his body just reacted, again far more quickly than I would be capable of even if I had been properly rested.

He twisted his upper torso and twirled the long halberd, bringing it around in a powerful sweep that would swat me out of the sky. If only for the fact that I figured this was how he would respond. While it was true I didn't handle unexpected situations well, if I knew something was coming I could avoid it.

Sky's Semblance and mine were similar in a way that both allowed us to leap distances that would normally be impossible for most Huntsmen without some kind of artificial enhancement. However, if we were talking total distance covered in a single bound than his was clearly superior by a long shot. I couldn't jump nearly as high as he just did and mine also had a major drawback that his appeared to lack. However, there was at least one way in which mine was superior.

Unlike him, I could also kick off thin air.

The swirling air was still circulating beneath both my feet and I hadn't let up on the pressure yet. His weapon swung straight for my neck. I unleashed the pressure beneath my right foot. The direction of my course was suddenly changed from straight up to horizontal and Sky's attack missed by a mile, halberd swinging through empty air. This time I did manage to surprise him. To his eyes it probably just looked like I pulled a Houdini and vanished. His head whipped around, trying to track where I went.

He didn't find me fast enough.

In the span of time that hadn't even been a full second and I also unleashed the circulating air beneath my left foot. I pinballed back, once again on a straight collision course with my opponent who still didn't know where I was. To the crowd, this series of movements must have appeared like my body had been lifted by the invisible hand of God and I was being violently shaken around for His amusement.

I was very much in control, however, and my foot came around in a spinning kick that collided with the side of Sky's skull. Earlier and I had mentioned how desperate I was to protect to my head and that was for good reason.

Aura was impressive. It acted like a force-field and protected our bodies from things that would otherwise be fatal. Such as a halberd being swung down on you from a falling assailant or a dagger being shoved at your ribs. What it didn't protect you from was internal shocks, such as say your brain smacking against your skull when you experienced whiplash.

Which is exactly what happened to Sky, the force of my high-speed kick turning him into a bobblehead. His eyes rolled up into the back of his skull and entire body went limp before he crashed into the ground, flopping around like a rag-doll. The speakers made another angry buzz and his portrait on the screen too went gray. Halfway done.

I landed just after with both feet planting firmly beneath me. All to spectacularly fall apart as a jolt of fiery hot pain shot up from my left ankle, that whole leg failing and sending me crashing to my knees.

Like I said, my Semblance has a drawback. The passive abilities I can use just fine and without worries, but its active skill isn't quite as nice on my body. Using it once every so often to kick off the ground or the air itself doesn't have much consequence but twice consecutively like just now and there's a high chance I'm going to sprain my ankles, if not break them. My right got lucky this time, but I must have overdone it with the left.

Two more loud gunshots drew my eyes to the last male member of the team standing. Dove Bronzewing and my brother were locked in what looked to be increasingly heated combat, the former starting to feel the pressure after having the numbers advantage turned on him.

If I was talking pure skill alone, Jaune was inferior in just about every aspect. He was being completely overwhelmed by his opponent, fighting purely defensively and taking extra precaution to guard his head, the only exposed part of his body. Dove, meanwhile, was far more nimble than I would have expected for someone who had changed his entire molecular structure into solid bronze. He was flipping all over the place, continuously striking at my brother's face with a combination of sword slashes and gunshots.

I looked up at the screen. Jaune's Aura was still at ninety-eight percent. Dove's was at a perfect one hundred. Provided my twin didn't take a blow to the head and these two could fight all day by the looks of things. They were both endurance-type fighters and relied on their superior defenses to wear down their opponent before moving in for the finishing blow.

It was the exact opposite of me who would be a total glass cannon if not for my abnormally large Aura reserves. I usually resolved to end things in one move if it was possible. Opponents like the two fighting right now were the kind I had the most trouble with. However, as he was now we had a chance against Dove.

I glanced once again at Pyrrha Nikos to make sure, but she was still standing at the opposite edge of the arena. Merely watching. She had no intention of interfering even though we had managed to flip things around and her teammate was fighting by himself. Something her last standing teammate already knew. Otherwise he wouldn't have been attacking even half as aggressively as he was. He was desperate to finish my brother off while I was still down. If he was rushing, that also meant he was going to be getting sloppy.

A chance I wasn't about to let slip by.

Crocea Mors was just a short distance away from me. The ice was completely gone now, most of it shattered from when I used Russel's face for batting practice. What little that had been left melted and created a small puddle around the blade.

I crawled to it, not able to do much more than that with my left ankle still all but useless. Aura could heal minor wounds quickly enough, but a sprain was going to take a few minutes and that was without me aggravating it further. My biceps were also still shot from trying to turn Crocea Mors into a fan. On top of that and my right shoulder wasn't feeling too hot after Sky had slammed on it with the pointy end of his big stick.

In short, I was a real mess right now but I wasn't about to let that stop me.

Jaune needed me and I couldn't let him down. I reached Crocea Mors and my fingers curled around the sapphire handle. Lifting the sword was the equivalent to lifting a truck, my arms refusing the first couple of times. Finally I managed to get it high enough to plant the blade into the floor and use it as a crutch. Hoisting myself help, I put all my weight between Crocea Mors and my right foot. Finally, I turned to the two fighting tanks.

Getting over to them wasn't any easier. I had to limp, dragging my sprained foot along with me while lifting Crocea Mors and stabbing it into the floor with every step I took. It did have a slightly chilling effect, the entire crowd dead silent now as they watched us. Aside from the occasional dull thunks created whenever Jaune and Dove clashed or his sporadic gunfire, the only noise was the rhythmic taps Crocea Mors made when I stabbed the floor.

The noise must have been getting to Dove, because he made a fatal mistake and turned his back on Jaune to point his gun-sword at me. My twin didn't miss the opportunity, finally taking to the offensive and tackling the man made of bronze. A loud gunshot echoed throughout the arena and I felt the wind pressure of the bullet as it whizzed over my shoulder.

There were muted grunts for several seconds, Jaune trying to maintain his grip on Dove and the latter trying to shake my brother off. I didn't stop limping forward and after what felt like forever managed to drag myself to within an arm's reach. Jaune had somehow managed to entangle Dove in a grapple during that time, holding his arms and head locked mostly in place.

"Hold him still." I ordered. Dove was still able to bend his arm at the elbow and his gun-sword flailed like dying trout hooked out of the river, the blade nearly managing to slash me in the face. "I told you to hold him still!"

"You try doing this!" Jaune snapped back. "It's not as easy as it looks." He and I locked eyes for a moment before I simply grunted in what was supposed to be an apology. We didn't have time to argue right now and I was the one in the wrong anyways.

I lifted Crocea Mors, my arms protesting the whole way up and left ankle not taking too kindly to having weight placed on it again so soon. Somehow I managed to get the heavy blade over my head and swung back down, striking Dove's weapon and knocking it from his grip. Crocea Mors continued into the floor and with a loud grunt I pulled it back free.

"The Hell are you doing?" Dove quit flailing, coming to a standstill so he could glare at me with a final spark of defiance. "In case you didn't notice, my Semblance turns me into metal at a molecular level. When I'm like this and even my Aura doesn't have to protect me. Grimm have had their teeth broken trying to sink them into me."

I smirked, my sunken eyes staring back at me from Dove's reflective body. "You hear that, brother? He thinks his body is tough. Let's see about that..." I lifted Crocea Mors and swung. Jaune braced for the impact and locked his feet.

Dove's body made of bronze rang out like a giant gong.

If the crowd had been silent before, that silence had become downright palpable now. This wasn't the kind of fight they had come to see. They wanted to see a proper exchange with both sides doing their best to uphold honor, chivalry, and all that other bullshit. I didn't have time for that and neither did the Grimm. Out there in the wilds and you had to win by whatever means possible.

I swung Crocea Mors again. Dove's body rung again and I felt the vibration strongly enough to make my teeth chatter and bones rattle. "H-hey! I told you it's no good." A distinctly terrified stutter had overtaken Dove's once overconfident voice. "Didn't you hear me-"

The sound of Crocea Mors striking his body cut him off. This time and there was another noise on top of that, cracks spider-webbing across his formerly leather vest. "Knock it off!" Dove screamed with a sudden fervor. "My whole body is made of the same metal. If you crack me while I'm like this I'll still be broken when I turn back-"

Again the loud ringing cut him off and the cracks spread further. "I'm going to die you crazy bitch!" He tried turning his head to appeal to my brother. "Hey man, let me go! I'm being serious right now-"

The cracks spread further with my latest swing. Once more and they were going to extend past his armor and to his skin.

"Joan…" My brother's voice wavered and his grip almost slacked. One quick glare from me shut him up and he continued to hold Dove firm. The cracking man looked back and forth between us, slanted bronze eyes trying to find some hint of mercy somewhere in our souls. He wasn't going to find any.

I raised Crocea Mors again, resting it behind me like a batter winding up for another home run. "Stop! Stop! I give up, just please stop already!" Dove's body returned to normal, his body going slack and tears beginning to roll down his eyes now that he was capable of producing things other than pure bronze. His leather armor really was split in the areas where his bronze body had cracked too.

Only once the angry buzzer signalled that his surrender was official did I lower Crocea Mors and Jaune release his hold. Dove collapsed to his knees. When he looked back up at his through tear-filled eyes, I knew he was no longer seeing us as humans. Instead he saw monsters. Monsters disguised in human flesh.

A look I was all too familiar with already.

We turned our backs on Dove and his judgmental glare. He was no longer a threat and the only opponent we had left was his leader.

Pyrrha Nikos had started walking towards the center of the arena, her face set in a grim expression and weapon drawn. Her Aura was sitting perfect at one-hundred percent and she hadn't expended any energy yet. Meanwhile, I was still a wreck and had only half my Aura. Jaune was physically unhurt, but Dove hadn't exactly been a pushover and my brother's chest was heaving from the previous exertion. We were tired and if there was any chance she might have taken it easy on us before, we pretty much burned that bridge with our actions against her teammates just now.

We now got to face off against the full wrath of the Vytal Tournament Champion.


	5. Jaune Arc vs Pyrrha Nikos

**AN:** Welcome back to another chapter.

So I guess I'll talk Semblances. Joan's Semblance was actually created at first just as water-walking, but that ended up being a little too specific to actually be useful. So I added abilities that felt "light-footed" in nature. One review compared her to a ninja-class from an RPG and that's not too far off. Her water-walking was actually intended as an allusion to Jeanne D'Arc and by extension Christ himself, but I wonder if that falls a little flat after adding in other powers on top of that?

Jaune's Semblance gets revealed this chapter and to be clear, I don't think what he uses in this fic will be what he has in Canon. I hear Polarity is a real popular theory right now and I'm inclined to lean that way myself, but it's not what he has here. Just wanted to throw that out there.

The Semblances for Russel, Dove, and Sky all ended up being just a play on their names in some way. Russel Thrush and his skill was a "thrust." Dove Bronzewing had the ability to turn bronze. And then Sky Lark could jump really high to attack... from the sky. ...Sorry, I'll repent for my terrible sense of humor. But yeah, they weren't anything I put too much thought into. Just quick abilities I came up with to make the fight more even and interesting.

Regardless of what you think of those three and how they act in Canon, they are somewhat different people in this fic. They've been training under Pyrrha and so are not only stronger, but not quite as big of jerks as they were in Canon. Still jerks, just not quite as bad. They'll be back in later chapters and I'll look to explore their dynamic with Pyrrha and how it's affected them and her at that time.

Anyways, this is the fight I've been building up to for three consecutive cliff-hangers now. Hopefully it lives up to the hype.

* * *

Beta: Wildstraydog

* * *

 **Twin's Game**

The First Day (Part IV)

 _Jaune Arc vs Pyrrha Nikos_

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Fairy tales are real.

It probably sounds really weird to hear that from someone like me. However, it wasn't like I was just proclaiming something so blatantly ridiculous without any kind of evidence. My brother and I were the very proof I needed to know that the special powers talked about in all of those children's stories had a real-world basis.

I wasn't going to go out and say every single one of them was one hundred percent accurate and most of them had probably been exaggerated far beyond their original scope, but the legends also weren't as far-fetched as they originally seemed either.

Pyrrha Nikos was about to find this lesson out first hand as she faced off against us twins.

Jaune and I took our attention off our opposition for only a split second. Just long enough to glance at one another and link eyes. There was a spark between us, something nobody else could possibly perceive and our eyes began to glow with a soft light. In a well-lit room such as this it was impossible to notice, but in the darkness it would be all too obvious that there was a change. I tried looking in a mirror one time in a pitch-black room and had no problem seeing my eyes reflecting back at me like two blue flashlights.

This ability wasn't a Semblance. It was something else… the only way I could think to describe it was magic.

Jaune and I had always been close and it was always easy for us to figure out what the other was thinking. However, this ability made that possible in the deepest sense of those words and we shared everything. When our eyes began to glow, it was less like we were twins but one person in two bodies. That was the only way I could think to describe it.

The screen hanging over the arena began misbehaving, a side-effect of the strange information it was receiving from our scrolls. When I said that we shared everything, I meant that in the most literal words possible. Jaune's Aura and my own had merged and it took our scrolls several seconds to recalculate where our combined levels stood.

I had lost exactly half which had placed me into the yellow. Jaune had only lost a measly two percent. Our scrolls ended up compromising this number, placing the both of us at seventy-four percent. Whether that number was completely accurate or not, we didn't know but it was probably as close as the technology was going to get since it hadn't been programmed for cases like ours.

Pyrrha's emerald eyes glanced up at the board and I could practically see the gears whirring beneath her flaming red hair as she tried to rationalize what had just happened to our Auras.

She probably already had a good grasp on what my Semblance was or at the very least the basics of it. That included its big drawback too. It was kind of hard not to figure out after I had used it so blatantly to knock her teammate into the land of dreams. It was annoying that I had been forced to use it so obviously but when the alternative was losing I made the only choice I could have at the moment.

As it was right now, I could use my Semblance once more in my right foot. If I tried in my left it would break for sure. Pyrrha didn't know this exactly, but she did know I had a limit and that I must have been close to it. So if I did use it, it was only going to be as a last resort.

Jaune's Semblance, however, was still a mystery to her. We could play that to our advantage as she most likely was incorrectly assuming what just happened had been his doing and not the both of ours. Not that she would believe the truth even if we were to tell her.

The legends of old to most people were nothing more than cautionary tales, things to read to your kids before bed in order to try and instill some good morals or other such bullshit into their brains. People accepted things like Semblances and Dust because they were everyday occurrences, not taking for granted how spectacular these powers were. Yet somehow the very notion that those bedtime stories their parents read to them might be real sent people into a tizzy. I didn't understand it.

Once upon a time, I had tried convincing others that Jaune and I had a gift. A special power right from the storybook I kept tucked underneath my bed. No one ever believed me, even when I showed them actual proof of our connection. They just chalked it up to some cute little trick and left it at that, burying their heads in the sand. So I had given up on telling people, already knowing the result.

The two of us walked towards the middle of the arena where the Vytal Tournament Champion was waiting. The sprain in my ankle hurt considerably less now and the soreness of my biceps had also been reduced. It wasn't that they were healing any faster, but rather Jaune was bearing half that burden for me now. That was part of what it meant to share everything.

We were going to need to do no less to win the fight ahead of us.

Pyrrha Nikos had a more complicated expression than I originally assumed. While it was true her lips were locked in a grim frown, her emerald eyes were lingering on us with this sense of pity. In one hand she held a red sword and in the other a circular golden shield, both at her side and not at the ready for combat.

"I'm sorry about my teammates." Pyrrha spoke just as we entered within normal conversational distance. "They can sometimes be a little selfish and hot-headed but…" She paused, looking for the words. "They really do mean well and just wanted to earn some respect. I'm afraid my shortcomings as a leader has forced them to feel somewhat overshadowed and it looks like they tried to take it out on you."

Jaune and I stopped walking and glanced at one another. Our feelings too were connected right now, so I could feel the urge he had to talk to her. The girl he had stared at longingly every morning while munching on that cereal he liked so much. Just like he could feel my jealousy permeating back through.

In the end, he chose to ignore what I was feeling and turned back to Pyrrha, "I'm sorry too. For the way we went about beating your last teammate, that is. It's just that we…" He paused, looking for some kind of excuse.

The answer was obvious though. All he had to do was blame me. I was the one who forced him into holding Dove Bronzewing down while I beat on him like a drum. Jaune had wanted to let go but I wouldn't allow it. Of course, blaming me was something Jaune could never do. He could pretend to ignore my wishes sometimes, but if I outright told him to do something and he would obey me as if my word was law.

"It's okay." Pyrrha shook her head without waiting for my brother to finish. "Maybe before the Vytal Festival I wouldn't have understood." Her emerald eyes misted over and I got the feeling she was thinking about something that happened only recently. "When the attack started and the Grimm invaded… I learned how little all those things they try to teach us about in the ring actually matter. In the real world, we have to be strong and do whatever we can to survive. I see you two have already learned that first hand…"

I had to resist the urge to spit. Sure, I bet the terrorist attack during the Vytal Festival must have been a _real_ ordeal for her and everyone here in Vale. What a tragic day that must have been. They should try having to live a whole year with that fear. Not knowing if this day or the next would be the one the Grimm overran your home. She and all these people had only experienced a small fraction of our fears… of our desperation.

She had _no_ idea what it was really like.

Jaune felt my disgust and anger boil through our link while Pyrrha clearly saw it expressed on my face. They both seemed to realize at the same time that anymore talking was pointless and that there was a match to fight. The crowd was still waiting for their champion and while they had remained silent, there was a certain energy to them now that had been missing before.

I bet this was just the kind of story they liked to see unfold. Jaune and I made pretty excellent villains out of ourselves just now by so mercilessly beating Pyrrha's underlings without a shred of human decency. Now the champion was here to avenge her fallen comrades and strike us down. It may have taken a slight detour to reach this point, but the anticipation had made the wait all the more worth it for them.

We were never expected to beat the woman in front of us. The only thing we had to do was put on a good show and gather those secret points. I knew this from the beginning but now… I wanted to win, dammit. Something about this girl seriously rubbed me the wrong way and made me really want to shove her face into the mud.

My desire to win coursed through our connection and I felt a similar feeling well up inside Jaune. He too wanted to win, but for different reasons than I did. In a way, he wasn't much different from those guys we had just beaten. All my brother wanted was the same respect all those heroes he admired received. He somehow mistakenly believed that by beating the champion that we could get that.

After the way we had just fought and that would never happen. Even if we won, the crowd watching would just say we had fought dirty and so the result was null. I couldn't bear to let my brother know this and so buried the emotion so deeply that it couldn't possibly seep through for him to feel. It was better this way. At least like this we both wanted to win with all our hearts.

Jaune moved first and I followed behind him. There were no words between us. I knew how my brother was going to move just as soon as he did and vice versa. It was that way even without the link connecting us, but now that sense was more refined and precise than before. We were going to need to be in order to have a chance.

Pyrrha's shield came around and she settled into a defensive posture. The perfect stance to block and counterattack. Her emerald eyes bounced back and forth between us, waiting to see how we would move. Would we go for a feint? Or was Jaune going to remain in the lead, using his superior defenses to break through hers and give me a chance to strike?

The answer was neither.

Jaune and I attacked at exactly the same time. He swung at her from the left and I stepped around to attack from the right. Without our power linking us together and this was a technique we would never try, the chance of getting in one another's way too high. As we were now and that thought wasn't even on the back of our minds. The only one with something to fear was Pyrrha Nikos.

Of course, that thought was rather arrogant of me as the Vytal Tournament Champion ended up proving not even a full second later. With her shield she guarded against Jaune's crossed slash. In the other hand, her sword transformed into a long javelin without me even seeing her hit a switch. Pyrrha dropped to one knee, swinging the javelin up and smacking Crocea Mors clear over her head.

With Pyrrha no longer in the way, try guessing who ended up receiving the full brunt of my sword right in the chest. That's right, Jaune let out a loud cry as I bowled him over and knocked him onto his back. A sharp spike of pain similar to heartburn filled my own chest as I absorbed half the pain from the accidental friendly fire.

Loud laughter echoed from above, the crowd treating us like jesters now with how effortlessly Pyrrha had just manipulated us. All in the first move no less.

My frustration mounted and I ended up glaring down at her with unbridled hostility. Pyrrha merely looked guilty, deep frown on her face and emerald eyes lingering softly on my brother's prone form. "Don't you look at him." I whispered between grit teeth, not even aware I had spoke until her eyes snapped back up to me.

I had lifted Crocea Mors high over my head. The soreness in my biceps was all but gone, the anger taking over completely and forcing adrenaline to course through me. I swung down, letting the incredible weight of the weapon do most the work. In the position she was in, one knee on the floor, there was no way in Hell that I could miss.

For her to be able to dodge, two miracles had to occur.

The first was that my swing had to somehow slow, which wouldn't have been possible even if I had wanted to. Once the weapon began its descent, its weight guaranteed it was only going in that single direction. The second was Pyrrha would need to have been able to slide backwards without building any kind of proper momentum. Those two miracles occurring concurrently and allowed her to dodge Crocea Mors by a hair's breadth. The weapon sliced into the floor and I remained stuck in place, trying to wedge it free.

Pyrrha had jumped to her feet and the javelin in her hand transformed again, this time becoming a rifle that she pointed at me from near point blank range. She pulled the trigger. Had I not been sharing my senses with Jaune I would have flinched.

I knew he was already standing again and by that time her gunshot echoed throughout the room he had placed himself between me and her. Crocea Iras deflected the shot with ease, his Aura not even taking any damage thanks to the protective Dust. He then pressed the advantage, charging Pyrrha all by himself while he bought me time to get my weapon free.

Pyrrha's rifle changed back into a sword, again without her hitting any notable switch that I could see. She and Jaune then engaged in what almost looked like an elegant dance, her body gracefully twirling and dodging out of the way of his every swing by the narrowest margin possible. Almost like she was just toying with him.

I could feel Jaune's frustration mounting, his self-doubt beginning to resurface. After how well we had managed against the last three guys and even I had felt a little good about us and our level. This girl… this Champion was on a whole other plane of existence entirely, one we couldn't even dream to touch.

Still, there was something wrong. Something slightly off with her movements… and with Jaune's. I was connected to him and could in a way feel how he intended to move. There was a slight disconnect between the way he was trying to swing at Pyrrha with the glowing gold blades on his forearms and with what he was actually doing. It wasn't much, the course of his swings just ever so slightly off, but it was enough to be suspicious.

It was the same thing that happened to me. I was positive there was no way that Crocea Mors could have slowed down so I just dismissed it as a trick of my imagination. Maybe Jaune's senses influencing mine when he was standing. Now I was starting to think I wasn't so crazy after all.

"Brother!" I shouted, my voice halting the battle. Pyrrha skipped back to put distance between herself and my brother while he was distracted. "Switch off Crocea Iras." His surprise coursed through the connection but I pushed my resolve back through, overpowering his feelings and assuring him that it would be fine.

He didn't look or feel happy about it, but he did as I instructed and lifted his palm to place it on the pauldron. Normally when he pressed down, the Dust inside would lose its stability and the armor would crumble as if it had been made of sand. Instead he was met with resistance. The gears of the pauldron didn't budge and his armor did nothing.

"I knew it." I whispered, not at all happy to have been right.

Dust is a mineral mined from the earth all over Remnant. Nowadays this is done almost exclusively by the Schnee Dust Company who practically have a monopoly on the entire industry. Buying enough vials to fill Crocea Iras for just one coat was worth a whole week's worth of food, to put it in perspective.

Dust could do amazing things when mixed with our Aura. It could even be used to amplify our Semblance if done right. It could be refined into shells and bullets like what Pyrrha had fired at my face earlier. Or it could create elements from seemingly nothing like how Russel turned Crocea Mors into an overweight popsicle. Most all of our current technology was powered in some way by Dust.

Like most other such minerals, it also had subtle magnetic properties. Not quite on the level of metals like what Crocea Mors or Pyrrha's entire outfit were made of, but it was there nonetheless. Which is exactly why we were losing so spectacularly. Well, it was at least a contributing factor.

Put as best as I understood it, Pyrrha's Semblance allowed her to manipulate the magnetic properties found inside both our weapons and hers. It was how she was able to move in a way that should have been impossible while also ensuring our attacks always missed. She was smart too, using it subtly enough that if not for our link sending me the feedback I would have never noticed the discrepancy.

The problem was I had no idea how we were supposed to get around this.

Sure, I could abandon Crocea Mors and try to take her on without any metal but that was pretty much guaranteed to fail. Jaune didn't even have that option, Pyrrha controlling his armor and locking him inside it. If she wanted it, she might have been able to turn him against me and reverse the numbers advantage. I got the feeling she wasn't the type of person to do something like that, but that wasn't the issue.

We were completely at her mercy. It might have even just been better to give up and save ourselves the trouble. That was how unwinnable our current situation was.

"Don't give up!" Jaune's sudden shout startled me from my increasingly depressive musings. I had been so focused on my own sense of hopelessness and despair that I failed to feel his budding determination and defiance.

My brother's eyes were shining and it wasn't just because of some fairy tale that made them glow like blue flashlights. They were filled with the will to win. An honest desire for it, not some hollow imitation like I had been toting around.

This was everything for Jaune. He wanted to come to Beacon and prove himself worthy of our Arc family name. I was only here because of the guilt I felt towards him. Even that anger and disgust I felt towards Pyrrha Nikos had been empty, nothing more than my own pettiness. Which was why it gave out so quickly, after only the second swing had failed to land.

"I don't care how many boxes of cereal she's been on!" Jaune pointed directly at the redhead in front of us. If Pyrrha had looked even remotely surprised by his first outburst, then his second one caused her to appear downright flabbergasted. Not a word I bet you would associate very often with the Vytal Tournament Champion. I couldn't blame her. Most people had probably long forgotten about the cereal stint or at the very least didn't care now that she had so many more notable achievements.

Not my brother. He loved Pumpkin Pete's breakfast, no matter how unhealthy it was for you.

Pyrrha's emerald eyes darted to the hoodie I was wearing. I knew right then that she put it together. From the size alone it was obvious it wasn't mine, but now she knew for sure who it belonged to. I don't know why, but I got the feeling that somehow her impression changed. It wasn't like she had lowered her stance any. Her jaw had locked itself back into an almost determined neutrality and when she faced my brother I knew she had no intention of losing. Yet, something about her eyes was somehow softer. Like they were no longer rock hard emeralds but gentle green leaves.

"We're going to win!" Joan roared from the bottom of his heart, his yell loud enough for even those in the crowd to hear. He charged straight at Pyrrha Nikos, not a thought for how he was going to get past her Semblance.

It wasn't that I didn't believe in my brother. I wanted to win too, if only for him. There just wasn't a way past her Semblance. This was a fact I knew and that Pyrrha knew… and yet Jaune proved the both of us wrong.

I mentioned it before, but it's worth repeating; Pain is a survival instinct. It's a warning to us and I don't just mean against external threats. It's also to protect you from yourself. To keep you from overexerting and permanently damaging something. Your brain receives the signals from the relevant nerves and automatically dials back on the output, keeping you from doing something that it knows you'll regret.

Our combined senses halved that sense. It was why I was able to walk around on my still mostly sprained ankle and more or less ignore it. Was it healthy? No, and I was going to be feeling it later. That was later and this was now, however, which was the same principle Jaune applied to his attack.

My brother's arm swung at Pyrrha and her Semblance attempted to bend his slash out of the way. It didn't work, the golden sword striking Pyrrha's shield and putting her off-balance. The champion's eyes went wide, not at all understanding what just happened. To her, it looked like Jaune had just resisted her Semblance.

I knew exactly what it was all too well unfortunately. Jaune hadn't resisted her Semblance, he simply overpowered it. By using the full capacity of every muscle in his arm he pushed past Pyrrha's magnetic control and moved unhindered.

The problem with doing something like that was our bodies weren't designed to be used to such extents. The muscles in Jaune's arm had literally just torn themselves to shreds to pull this off and while he might have only felt half the pain from something like that, _I_ was the one receiving the other half.

I bit down on my lower lip to mask my scream, dropping to my knees and grabbing at my right arm. Even if it was only half, it was downright unbearable. My arm hadn't actually even taken any damage and yet the pain felt so real I almost believed I had. The only one who had actually suffered a loss was Jaune and that arm should have been unusable now.

This is where his Semblance comes into play. Aura is capable of healing scrapes and bruises pretty much immediately. Things like sprains take a few minutes longer and even broken bones will heal up in a couple days. What Jaune had just done would ordinarily take weeks to heal. With his Semblance it had already healed and he was swinging again.

The only other trade-off for this kind of rapid healing was it depleted our Aura. Fast. The bar at seventy-four percent started to fall, ticking off another percent every second. If it had just been his Aura it would have been going down at double the ratio. At ten percent we would both hit red and the match would be called.

Our Aura hit seventy percent, giving us sixty seconds. We had one minute to win this match if Jaune kept combining our ability and his Semblance in such a manner.

It looked like he had no intention of stopping either, pressing his advantage on Pyrrha and swinging at her like a rampaging berserker. The golden twin blades attached to his forearms were creating constant orange sparks as they deflected off her shield and sword. He gave a loud yell, voice cracking as he tried to break through.

It wasn't going to be that easy. Pyrrha's Semblance may not have been working at full power but it was at least slowing my brother down. Add to that and she wasn't a champion just because of her Semblance. She was damned skilled and while Jaune had caught her flat-footed, she was beginning to get the hang of his movements and was even starting to reverse the flow.

Her confusion was gone, replaced by… something else. I dare say she almost looked like she was enjoying this fight. I was over here feeling constant agony as my brother repeatedly destroyed his arms to keep the fight even and she was having fun.

"Fuck it." I grumbled to myself. We had dropped down to forty percent shared Aura. If I let my brother keep going as he was by himself than we were going to lose. And I still wanted to win, even if that feeling was born from imitating him. "Brother!" I shouted, pushing the pain to the back of my mind and finally wedging Crocea Mors free.

He could feel my intent through the link. Without even having to turn to me he disengaged from Pyrrha and leapt backwards. I gave a loud grunt, hefting Crocea Mors over my shoulder and tossing it with all my might. The heirloom twirled through the air, making loud whooshes with every rotation.

Jaune extended his hand and caught the blade by the handle. Pyrrha hadn't given chase, raising her shield and taking the same defensive stance she had at the beginning of the match. Either she realized that we were going to run out of Aura soon or she was curious to see what we were going to do. Regardless, it was a mistake to let Jaune put as much distance between them as he had.

"You better make this count." I ran at my brother and jumped. His back was still to me, having not once turned away from Pyrrha Nikos. My semblance reached a breaking point below my right foot, the wind swirling with enough force to be considered a miniature twister. "Now kick her ass, Bro!" I unleashed the power below my foot, pointing it right into Jaune's back.

He leapt off the moment I released it, the powerful gale propelling him forward at speeds easily four times than what he was just moving. Pyrrha didn't even have a chance to move. My brother swung Crocea Mors with both arms. They kept breaking several times a second and repairing just as fast. Our Aura dropped at twice the rate of before.

There was a loud ringing like that of the local church-bell from our old village. Pyrrha's feet left the ground and she went rocketing across the arena. She hit the floor and bounced, her body performing a series of rapid flips and spins as she tried to get control of her flight. She bounced once more, momentum finally slowing enough to dig the tip of her javelin down into the arena and grind to a halt. Just inches short of having been knocked out of bounds.

Her shield was gone, having flown off in a different direction. She was on her knees and the arm that had been holding that shield… hung limp at her side. One emerald eye squeezed shut, the arm without her shield trembling and distinct red liquid dripping off the edges of her fingers.

Jaune had cut through her Aura. With that one swing he had overpowered the Vytal Tournament Champion's natural defenses and wounded her. Hell, I think he actually broke her arm just now.

We could win, we could actually fucking win.

The moment my mind realized this and I was already running. One little push was all it would take to knock her out of bounds. And I didn't have anything metal on my person right now. Pyrrha couldn't move me with her Semblance and with her arm shot like that she wouldn't be able to stop me from tackling her off. Even if I had to lose to take her with me it would be worth it.

This was Jaune's victory, not mine.

Behind me and my brother was giving chase. Even if I failed or missed, he would be just a step behind to finish the job. Our Aura was nearly spent, sitting pretty at an even twelve percent but no longer counting down. One wrong move and we were going to slip into the red. Which was why I was going to end it before that could happen.

The once laughing crowd had gone silent. They were all leaned forward, waiting for the outcome that would be deciding in the next couple seconds. Their champion had been pushed into a corner and was about to lose. Yet they all held out hope that she would win. Thinking so innocently that this was going to have a fairy tale ending.

Pyrrha tried to stand but just ended up collapsing right back to her knees. She looked dazed, probably having hit her head during one of those skips. I don't think she could have used her Semblance even if she wanted to. She was powerless to do anything. That was what I incorrectly believed.

I had compared Pyrrha's eyes to two gentle green leaves when she was looking at my brother earlier. That description was more apt than I originally intended it.

Just seconds before I reached her, tucking down for the tackle that would knock the both of us out of bounds- her eyes changed. They transformed from the deep lush green, filling with varying degrees of browns, yellows, and reds like the dying leaves of autumn.

If that had just been the only change I might not have noticed. What there was no ignoring was the powerful gust of wind that slammed into me. One originating from her. It was in that moment that I realized the truth and understood exactly why Ozpin had wanted us to fight her.

Jaune and I weren't the only ones with powers from a fairy tale.

Pyrrha Nikos wasn't just the Vytal Tournament Champion. She was also one of the Four Maidens from The Story of the Seasons.

I was helpless to do anything, the torrential gale she produced making the wind my Semblance could unleash look like whispers. My brother was equally powerless and I was blown into him, knocking the both of us off our feet and sending us twirling through the air like leaves in the wind.

Everything that happened in the next couple seconds was a blur. All sense of direction was lost to me and at some point during our ascent, Jaune had taken me protectively in his arms. It all came to a sudden halt, my brother's back smacking against the wall of the opposite end of the arena. Refusing to let me go, he protected my head as we hit the floor shortly after.

The angry buzzer rang out again, signaling a double-knock out this time. Jaune and I had both been blasted outside the arena and we had our Aura knocked into the red at the same time.

It was Pyrrha's complete and utter victory.

You know what the worst part was? She didn't even look happy about it, appearing mortified instead. She hadn't even meant to use her Maiden powers just now. They just came out against her will, protecting her of their own accord. Now she stood there, being showered by the cheers of her adoring fans and she could only look at us as if trying to apologize.

This girl really pisses me off.

"Joan?" Jaune asked, voice tickling my ear. "You okay?" He was still holding onto me as if we might get separated by another storm at any moment. Something I didn't much mind, settling a little more contently into his embrace. It was the only thing able to make me feel even a little better right now.

Crocea Iras was breaking apart, taking on the consistency of sand that crumbled around us and fell to the floor. In a matter of moments it would disappear altogether. Crocea Mors had been blown somewhere I did not know. Jaune must have dropped it to catch me, no doubt having actually prevented me serious injury just now. The smack against the wall would have eliminated what Aura I had which would have left me unprotected when I fell to the floor.

Even so, I didn't feel okay.

"I'm fine." I lied. Our connection was no longer active and I could tell my Aura was completely gone. All the pain from the battle came crashing into me at once and it was all I could do not to start crying. It was made only worse by the fatigue from days without sleep hit me harder than ever and darkness crawled at the edges of my vision.

I couldn't be allowed to give in to the ever so tempting darkness just yet, a pair of dress shoes stopping in front of my face. "Do either of you require any medical assistance?" Ozpin asked, leaning over us and not looking nearly as concerned as his question would suggest. Hell, he looked amused.

"I think we're good." Jaune slowly sat up and brought me with him. He leaned against the wall, not bothering to rise to his feet and sat me comfortably in his lap. I snuggled even deeper into his hold and placed the top of my head underneath his chin. The armor of Crocea Iras had broken apart but its warm glow was partially still there, making his Beacon uniform feel nice and comfortable, his arms around my waist like a blanket.

"Very good then." Ozpin didn't seem perturbed in the slightest bit by the level of disrespect we were giving him by not standing. Probably because he knew how exhausted we both were after his unfair test. "So then, would you like me to give you the results of your initiation?" He asked, pulling out his scroll and holding it almost tauntingly over our heads.

I merely grunted, leaving it to my brother to speak, "Y-Yes. Please!" He nodded vigorously, his chin bouncing my own head with each and every one.

Ozpin unlocked his scroll and looked at it as if tallying up the total score. Finally, after too many deliberate seconds of silence, he delivered our judgement. "The two of you managed to gather three points during the match."

Three!? That was it? I was more curious than ever to know what those damn points were, if only so I could know how it was possible we got so little.

Jaune deflated and his body sunk a little more deeply into the floor. I almost thought he was trying to melt into it. Unconsciously, I grabbed his hands and squeezed to try and give him what little support I could. He held mine back and I could feel his warmth spread to the rest of me.

"Pyrrha and her team-" Ozpin slipped his scroll away and looked down at us, that same damn annoying grin still on his face. "Only gathered two."

There was a moment's pause.

One where my brother and I both tried to understand what it was that the Headmaster had just said. "W-wait…" Jaune sat back up and I could feel the excited realization begin to wash over. "If we gathered three and she only got two- then that means…" Ozpin's smile became just a little more genuine and he extended a hand to help us stand.

"Congratulations, you two are officially students of Beacon Academy."


	6. The Headmaster's Office

**AN:** Answer time.

As was to be expected, I got concerns about the level of the initiation Ozpin put the twins through, several feeling it was unfair. So this chapter gives the reasons for that. Whether or not those reasons will satisfy you is another matter entirely, but I made an effort.

I'm still kind of debating about how much I'll have to talk about the Battle of Beacon in Author's Notes and how much I'll be able to give to you as context in the story. It's kind of hard to talk about exactly what happened within the fic itself considering it's Joan's PoV, but I'll be making allusions to it throughout and be sprinkling little details here and there to explain what happened and how it diverged from Canon. So for now I'm going to refrain from saying too much and see how I do with giving clues and ideas about how things were different from Canon over the next several chapters. Hopefully without being too detracting from the main plot.

Maiden powers aren't common knowledge now or anything in Remnant. Pyrrha just slipped up using her powers so blatantly during the match last chapter and Joan only realized it because she also has fairy tale powers so she knew what to look for. Also, you should just kind of assume that Joan never really knows what she's talking about when it comes to assuming the thoughts of other people. She likes to think she knows everything that's going on in other people's heads, but she's usually just plain dead wrong.

Also, also. There seemed to be a little confusion about Jaune's Semblance last chapter. So Jaune's Semblance is only the extreme healing. The being able to swing his arm beyond the human body limits and subsequently destroying his muscles was a side-effect of his and Joan's shared connection. So what he was doing was taking advantage of having both abilities, but attacking with enough force to destroy his body like that isn't something he can do if he and Joan aren't connected. Sorry if that wasn't clear enough. It made sense in my head but apparently I didn't do a good enough job explaining it on paper. I will strive to do better in the future!

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Beta: Wildstraydog

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 **Twin's Game**

The First Day (Part V)

 _The Headmaster's Office_

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Beacon Academy is one of the four great schools renowned for the training of Huntsmen and Huntresses.

However, did you know it also did far more than just that? Most people don't seem to realize it, but the vast majority of the student body actually weren't aspiring Huntsmen at all. In fact, the Huntsmen training division consisted of the smallest total number of accepted applicants.

So what did all the other students who got accepted into Beacon do? Well, there were all kinds of things.

Starting with the Huntsman engineering division. All those fancy doodads you see Huntsmen swinging around and that have like five different transformations? Four times out of five, they were built by someone from here. There were always exceptions like Ruby, but people like Jaune and I were going to be taking our heirlooms to these guys if we needed any repairs or upgrades made. Of course, we had to be careful with them. Also like Ruby… they tended to be a bit on the eccentric side.

Moving on, next you had the Huntsman promotional division. The people studying here are the ones behind all the recruitment drives and Pro-Huntsmen propaganda you see everywhere. That includes signing all those deals with other companies to use the likeness of popular Huntresses on their products. These people also usually learn things like finance and trip planning in order to support our protectors by handling those kind of things for them if needed. Glorified gophers more or less.

Hell, there was a whole Huntsmen psychological division here. Say what you will about our protectors, they usually weren't the biggest socialites. The life of constant war against the creatures of darkness tends to leave them… well, with varying degrees of PTSD. They don't handle normal life too well sometimes after everything they've been through. So they constantly need people peeping into their brains and trying to convince them to go back out and keep fighting the good fight.

I could go on, but I think maybe you get the picture? There's all kinds of occupations that Beacon will train you for. All of them tend to be related to the Huntsmen in some shape or form, but it's only a very select number that actually come here for that specifically as their career.

It's also possible to enroll at Beacon initially as something else and if you show enough promise to get bumped into the Huntsmen training division, which a surprising number of applicants take advantage of. Not everyone has the luxury to train young and sometimes you just need to get your foot in the door to make connections. That's probably what my brother would have had to do, considering before we ran away he only had the most basic of training.

His only other option would have been something crazy like forging transcripts to cheat his way in and I'm sure my brother would never do something dishonest like that.

Aside from accepting students for all kinds of careers, Beacon and the other three academies served one other crucial function. That was being the location of the Cross Continental Transit Tower. It's a long name for a big building that's primary purpose is giving our scrolls the ability to communicate with one another, even allowing us to reach someone on another continent.

Located at the top of this tower was Headmaster Ozpin's personal office. It was a unique room as was to be expected of someone who stood at the top of the Huntsman community. I don't know what it was, but generally speaking, the stronger the Huntsman and the more eccentric they ended up being. The office had a clear glass floor with hundreds of gears visible beneath it, all of them turning and making a cacophony of clunks.

Ozpin himself sat behind a wide desk that looked like the surface was made of the same material of our scrolls. Being on top of the Cross Continental Transit and it wasn't exactly such a crazy idea. Jaune and I sat side by side in two chairs he placed out in front of his desk and now the three of us waited in an awkward silence for the coffee pot he set out to finish brewing the heavenly smelling refreshment.

I had to admit, Ozpin might not have been so bad after all. Anyone that offered me coffee was okay in my books. Even if that person had also just got done putting us through a strange and unusual test, not telling us the rules or how it was we had passed even now.

"So umm…" Jaune fidget in his seat, flinching at his own voice that echoed around the glass walls and floors. "How exactly did _we_ get three points when Pyrrha only got two anyways?" It was a fair question. Even more so when you considered she had three other people who should have been able to help her gather whatever it was those points were.

"You really haven't figured it out?" Ozpin removed the pot of coffee and poured three mugs, sliding two over to us. I took mine immediately and sipped at the wonderful, caffeine-filled nectar and enjoyed the warmth that immediately spread through me from head to toe. Jaune didn't reach for his, instead just shaking his head at Ozpin's question.

The headmaster sipped his own coffee and leaned back in the chair. "It was a point for every opponent you defeated. The two of you defeated Mister Thrush, Bronzewing, and Lark. Pyrrha Nikos only defeated the two of you. Thus, you got three points and they two."

Dammit. So we had actually won from the moment Dove surrendered. Which meant the whole fight against Pyrrha herself hadn't even been necessary. I knew the points had to have been something that would give us a handicap, but to think he had taken our biggest disadvantage in being outnumbered and made it into that handicap was beyond anything I would have imagined.

"But… what if we lost?" Jaune whispered, looking down at the space between his legs. It was hard to believe this was the same guy who had been so passionately swinging at Pyrrha Nikos in the ring while destroying and healing his own arms over and over again. That was a level of desperation I rarely saw in my brother and proved to me how deeply he truly wanted to be here.

"If you had lost then the two of you would be on a ship home tomorrow morning." Ozpin said without a trace of remorse or sympathy, his usual smile momentarily disappearing. "It's as simple as that."

"But-" Jaune opened his mouth and snapped it shut. I understood where his confusion was coming from. Things weren't lining up with Ozpin's words and actions. He went out of his way to bring us here, sending an experienced Huntsmen away from Beacon in order to ensure we would accept his offer. Only to turn around and give us a daunting trial to enter that at first glance seemed impossible.

"I think he knows we have powers." I got around feeling nervous about speaking to the headmaster by framing it as if I was talking to my brother instead. Ordinarily I wouldn't refer to our ability so openly, but Ozpin seemed to already know who we were. That was why he sent a Silver-eyed Warrior to greet us and matched us against one of the Four Maidens. He was indirectly telling us he knew what we were and that others were here.

Ozpin set his cup down and leaned forward on his desk, looking directly at me over the rims of his glasses. "It makes things easier to explain if you've figure out that much already." He confirmed.

"What?" Jaune looked back and forth between us, not following the conversation. He understood that our power was special, but unlike me he had never really been interested in trying to better understand where it came from. He also didn't care to believe that there were others with similar powers. I think he almost liked the idea of being unique and didn't want to shatter the illusion by finding out he wasn't.

I let out a sigh and leaned back in my chair, taking another sip of coffee. "You and I get our power from a story titled Twin's Game. Ruby is a Silver-eyed Warrior from the legends of the same name. Pyrrha Nikos is..." I paused, still unsure of myself. "...one of the Four Maidens from The Story of the Seasons. If I had to guess, I would say she's Fall's incarnate."

I had borrowed every book I could about fairy tales so if I ever did run into one of them, I would be able to tell immediately. It annoyed the Hell out of our father who would have to literally drag me to the wagon when it was time to go back to our village that was half full of illiterates.

"Okay, but what do they have to do with us?" Jaune asked me as if I somehow had all the answers. I was just telling him what I knew but it was impossible for me to guess what Ozpin's intentions were by gathering all us fairy tales in one place.

"Strictly speaking," Ozpin brought both our attention back to him. "Those two being here has nothing to do with you. They were both crucial in weathering the terrorist attack that I'm sure you've heard about. The fact of the matter is, Miss Nikos only recently became the Fall Maiden. It was Miss Rose's power that opened the opportunity for her to seize it."

Now that was an interesting tidbit. While it was true that I knew the power of the Maidens could be passed on, there had been no indication in any of the books I had read that we knew the means by which that happened. Ozpin knowing it actually made me wonder; had that information been purposely hidden? If that was the case, were they trying to hide all modern fairy tales from existence? Most concerning-

"How did Ozpin know about us." The words left my mouth the moment I thought them, addressing my brother just out of habit.

"It wasn't hard." A female voice answered from behind me and my brother. We both turned at the same time to see a blonde woman with glasses emerge from the elevator. She walked across the room, heels making loud clicks every step of the way. The closer she got and the larger my blue eyes became.

"You-" Jaune gasped. We knew this woman, we had met her before. That had been nearly a year ago now and was just shortly after we ran away from home. We were struggling to kill even the most basic Grimm when she stopped in the village and offered to give us some pointers. She was also the last person I ever tried telling about our gift, convincing me that it was a lost cause.

"It has been quite some time, Mister and Miss Arc." Glynda Goodwitch walked around the side of the desk and stood by Ozpin's side. "I see you've both managed to survive all this time. What's more, you've actually managed to improve considerably. I almost wonder if more of our students would do better to spend so much time in the wilds?" She looked down at the headmaster, her voice sounding frighteningly serious as she always did.

"I see you both seem to remember her." Ozpin pointedly ignored her uneasy suggestion and gestured to the tall woman over his shoulder. "Glynda is a Professor here at Beacon and also one of the few people I trust to send out when we get leads on those with… gifts." He didn't use the word Semblance.

There were others, many others with powers from the books just like Jaune and I. And Ozpin knew where they all were.

"We keep an eye on all of you." He continued. "Make sure that you're not abusing your gifts… and also protecting you from those who would seek you harm." Someone really had been masking the existence of real world fairy tales. Not just someone, Ozpin. It was no wonder no one would ever believe me. This man and probably a whole organization existed to make sure it was that way.

I couldn't imagine it was too hard a job. Most people preferred to not think of fairy tales as real even when confronted with direct proof of them. Pyrrha Nikos had created a miniature tornado inside an enclosed room and yet there hadn't been any kind of public outcry by this supposedly impossible feat. I don't even think Ozpin had to release a statement, people just somehow accepting their champion always had this power.

There might be a few people who would step up and claim Pyrrha's power wasn't normal. That it was something unnatural, not of Dust or Semblances. Those people would quickly be ostracized by the masses and labeled conspiracy theorists. Ozpin could literally say anything he wanted to hide the truth and the people would just eat it up. It was sad… disgusting even.

"So then…" Jaune's voice wavered and his shoulders deflated ever so slightly. "We're not here to become a Huntsman and Huntress?" It must have been hard for him to hear. The place he always dreamed of attending had an interest in him, but not for the reasons he wanted. They simply meant to use him. And by extension me.

"My primary purpose in recruiting the two of you was not for that reason, no." Ozpin cruelly said the words that would hurt my brother the most. "However," he quickly added. "There is no reason you cannot remain here to be trained on that path. You both proved exceptionally strong in the ring and even surpassed the expectations I had."

Those words seemed to put my brother at ease and he perked back up, sending me one of the happiest smiles I had seen him make since we got here. I gave him a soft smile back, before reminding him of one crucial fact. "None of this explains why we're here in the first place."

If we weren't here originally to receive training, it seemed odd he would make us go through initiation. The contradiction between the headmaster's words and actions still hadn't been explained.

Ozpin and Glynda shared an uneasy glance, lasting long enough to set me on edge. It was Glynda who finally answered, her voice unmistakably grave even for her. "Something is attacking the students here. And frankly, we're out of options for how to deal with it."

Well, thanks for the coffee and the interesting information Ozpin. But I really think it's about time Jaune and I get going now. Get back to our hick village that hates us so we can eventually get killed by Grimm… is what I wanted to say. Too bad my brother was quicker to form words than I was.

"Something? You mean like a Grimm? Or another terrorist?" He asked with all the innocence of a sweet, sheltered child. He really had no idea how many other things were out in the world that could kill us.

"If they brought us here, it's more likely a banshee or a poltergeist." I grumbled under my breath. The story our powers came from varied from culture to culture, and while the name always changed, the twins from those stories without fail dealt with something supernatural. Usually in the form of the tormented dead. Not exactly something I was looking forward to facing, considering I didn't know anything about actually using our powers for something like an exorcism.

"I'm impressed." Ozpin said, holding up his mug as if offering me a toast. "We can't say for sure it's something like that, but based on the nature of the attacks we believe that to be the most likely scenario." Shit, I hate being right. It's almost never about something I would actually care to be right about. "It started just after the Vytal Tournament ended and all the other schools went home."

If this truly was a poltergeist, the timing at least lined up to support that theory. I can't imagine how many people died during the invasion and most of those deaths were probably none too peaceful, but it took more than that to make an angry spirit out of someone. Otherwise we would have them all over the place and they wouldn't just be considered old wive's tales or made into B-grade horror flicks.

Not that I had any idea what those prerequisites could possibly be.

"At first we didn't think much of it." Ozpin let out a short sigh, as if disappointed in himself. "Students reported being more tired than normal, an expected side-effect of having such a big event and tragic incident come to pass. However, then we noticed… an anomaly." Anomalies. Another thing I wasn't fond of. Go figure. "Students were having their Aura drained while they slept, sometimes waking up outside of their dorms and in the middle of the halls without any recollection of how they got there.

"In the past couple weeks it's only gotten worse. Students are now having psychotic breaks, rambling about unseen terrors that even our doctors are unable to make sense of. Initially, I thought we might be able to handle this crisis internally. That's looking more and more to not be the case. We not only failed to locate the assailant after numerous attempts, but then one of our own teachers ended up suffering the most extreme attack to date. She's alive… but her mind is barely hanging onto any trace of sanity."

Fuck. Now I knew why Ozpin gave us that crazy impossible initiation. He wasn't testing us to be an asshole. He was testing us because if we couldn't even stand up to his challenge, we didn't stand a fraction of a chance against something that had broken a fully trained Huntress while right under the headmaster's nose.

"So now you know the details." Glynda placed a hand on the desk and leaned towards us. She adjusted her spectacles and I could tell there was no judgement in her eyes. If anything, I felt like she was silently telling us to run. "If you want to go home after hearing about it, we won't blame you. This is our problem, even if we don't know what caused it. We're being selfish asking you to come fix it for us, but we really don't know any other way to deal with it anymore."

I really wanted to go home. Grimm were scary, but they were a known terror. There was no guarantee what we were up against was even something out of our legend or not. Worst case scenario, we go to exorcise it only to have no effect and get killed. There hadn't been any casualties yet, but with my luck we would be the first.

Too bad my brother was too pure for this world.

"We'll do it!" Jaune said without a shred of doubt. It wasn't so much that he was confident about our odds, he just legitimately had no idea how dangerous a job it was he was voluntarily leaping into. "If it means we can stay at Beacon, we'll definitely do it." He repeated, this time more softly.

Damn it all to Hell. If it was going to be this way, then I was going to get something out of it too.

"We have two conditions." I crossed my arms and leaned back in the chair, doing my best to look defiant. The effect was probably somewhat ruined by my petite size and that I refused to look anywhere but at my brother. Jaune's head snapped to me and we locked eyes, his conveying how terrified he was at the prospect of me messing everything up. I knew what I was doing, however. They needed us and we had proved ourselves capable of handling our own. "Beyond his expectations," is what I believe Ozpin said.

Glynda let out an almost disappointed sigh and took a step back. Ozpin merely sipped his coffee before responding as if expecting this, "And what would _your_ condition be, Miss Arc? I am correct in assuming the first is allowing your brother to train as a Huntsman?" Damn know-it-all.

I didn't respond to his assumption, which was as much confirmation as he needed. "Ozpin knows about where all the other fairy tales are and has been looking out for them." Again, I directed my words at my brother despite the headmaster being right there. "I want him to share that information with us. Someday, I want to meet them." It was fine with me if I had to do if for a mission like what Glynda was doing when she met us. I didn't care how, I just wanted to see them with my own two eyes. Not just read about them in a book.

For once, Ozpin did actually look somewhat taken aback by my request. It was gone so quickly I almost thought it a trick of my sleep-deprived imagination. "That's a troubling request, but not impossible." He nodded as if considering all the pros to letting us in. He needed to recruit new blood eventually. Who better than people he already had no choice but to fill in on some of his secrets?

"Very good," He gave his decision several seconds later. "but that one will come for after you've dealt with the- how did you call it, a poltergeist?" I nodded in agreement. It would have been asking for too much to have the information sooner than that. "The first condition will be better if you start right away. Classes are tomorrow and I believe Miss Rose has already shown you to your room?"

"That's right." Jaune just looked relieved that I hadn't managed to fuck anything up. "Are uh… are we going to be matched with another partner group to form a team?" Oh shit, I hadn't even considered that. Huntsmen trained in groups of four and they all shared the same room… not exactly a prospect I was looking forward to.

"Not right away." Glynda had turned her back to us, looking out the window and down at the sight of Vale City on the other side of a massive lake. "While dealing with the poltergeist, you'll be needing to use your Twin powers regularly. We would rather keep as few people in the know as possible so until this is dealt with, that will also have to wait. You'll go to classes and on field trips, but until you have a full team you won't be doing any official missions."

At least there was one good thing about this. Jaune and I would be alone in a room together with no one else to possibly disturb us. For a short while anyways. Depending on how things went, this little mission of ours was likely to take only a couple days. Before that, I needed to gather more information, both about it and about our own powers. Another good thing about being at Beacon was they had one of the biggest libraries in the known world.

"Perhaps that is enough for today?" Ozpin said, a sense of finality in his tone. "Just this alone must be a lot to take in and I'm sure you would like to rest. Try not to think too hard about what we've discussed tonight but the sooner this can be resolved, the safer everyone will be. Please come to me if you can think of any questions I can answer that will make things easier or if you need any help. You're not alone in this, we're all in it together." Technically speaking, Jaune and I wouldn't be involved at all if they hadn't dragged us here, but it was too late to complain about that now.

Not like we weren't getting anything out of this either.

"We'll just show ourselves out then?" Jaune stood up first, having not once touched his coffee. I finished what little was left of mine and picked his mug up. Ozpin didn't react to that, so I was going to assume it was fine to take it with me. Instead he just nodded to us his permission to leave and together we entered the elevator on the opposite end of his office.

The first several seconds of the ride down was spent in contemplative silence. Getting accepted into Beacon was a literal dream come true for Jaune, but it had come at a price neither of us expected. Dying while training for Huntsman life was always a real possibility, but it was normally because of a training accident gone wrong, a Grimm, or some other shitty low-life scumbag. Not something from beyond the grave or even worse, from Hell itself.

"Are you mad?" My brother finally worked up the nerve to ask me. It was a silly question no matter how you thought about it, yet somehow he had tricked himself into believing I could be upset at him for this. The situation was less than ideal, but Jaune brought me here with good intentions and it's not like he knew what we were walking into ahead of time.

"No." I didn't tell him all that and instead gave him a simple answer. I stepped a little closer to him, snuggling into his side. He lifted an arm and draped it over my shoulder, pulling me in a little closer still and I felt his lips briefly press down on the top of my head. It wasn't much, but it was our way of ensuring one another we would see this through. Together.

The door to the elevator opened.

Before either of us could take so much a single step there was a blur of red, rose petals dancing in front of our vision. "Oh my gosh!" Ruby's screeching voice echoed all throughout the compact elevator and assaulted my ears from every conceivable direction. "You guys were so awesome out there! I couldn't even believe it! Why didn't you tell me the two of you knew how to fight like that?" She started rambling on, telling us all about the fight we experienced firsthand and making a series of sound-effects to recreate it from a third-party perspective.

At least she didn't seem repulsed or dismissive of our strategies in the ring like I thought a pure girl such as her might be. I guess it just went to show that sometimes I really was too cynical and quick to assume the worst in people. Not that it was my fault, having so often had it proven to me that people were ugly, evil, creatures. To the point that sometimes I wondered how much of that I applied to myself as well.

"So what do you say?" Ruby suddenly asked and I realized I had already quit paying attention to her. "Wanna come with me to meet the rest of my team? They're really nice." Jaune must have already agreed because she looked exclusively at me with big, puppy dog eyes. An uncomfortable knot formed in the bottom of my stomach and my throat became dry. I really didn't want to meet more people, but also didn't want to reject my only "friend" here out of hand.

"It will be fine, I promise." Ruby must have seen my hesitance and so pressed a little harder. "I've already told them you're not too talkative and I'll make sure they don't crowd around you or anything. Leave it to me." Well, it was true I was going to have to talk to others eventually. Besides, it would be a good idea to get a view of these recent attacks from the student's perspectives. See if it would shed any light on what was going on.

I looked up at Jaune and saw him nodding encouragingly at me from overtop her head. So I let out a deep sigh and forced myself to speak out loud with Ruby for the first time. "Okay. I'll go." My voice came out as barely above a whisper, but I knew she heard me the moment the absolute elation overtook every single feature of her quivering body.

Well, looked like there was no backing out now.

Time to go meet more strangers.


	7. RWBY

**AN:** So to be clear, the fairy tale Jaune and Joan are based off of isn't a real life one or anything. It's a little story I made up specially for this fic. I'll end up detailing the fairy tale, but it will be a few chapters before I get to that point.

Having said that, I don't really plan to introduce anymore of those other fairy tales that I teased in the last chapter. That bit was more just a world-building section and to provide Joan with an extra incentive to not immediately turn tail and run. The main plot of this story is going to revolve around the incidents Ozpin and Glynda were talking about. Well, I say main plot but I guess there's like two main plots, the other one being a drama around Jaune/Joan's school life. The plots heavily intermingle, but I actually created them separately in my head so I kind of still end up thinking about them that way.

Also worth mentioning, but I did a bit of world-building last chapter where I talked about how Beacon trains more than just Huntsmen and there's all kinds of things they'll prep you for. I can't take credit for the idea, it was more of a Boku no Hero Academia knock-off thought that had been circling around in my head for a while. I'm sure others have had similar thoughts too. Anyone remember in Volume 3 when they were showing footage of the attacks and you saw Beacon students just running around and not fighting? It was a minor detail, but it always kind of bugged me.

Anyways, with this chapter I finally complete character introductions. Only took me this long to get around to that. It also is worth repeating, but seriously, thanks to all the support everyone has given this fic thus far. I really expected a much smaller response than what I had gotten, considering a number of factors, so it's really great to see so many were willing to give this a chance. It means a lot to me.

Now I'll quit being all sappy and actually let y'all get to reading.

* * *

Beta: Wildstraydog

* * *

 **Twin's Game**

The First Day (Part VI)

 _RWBY_

* * *

Public bathing is a long and ancient custom from my home continent of Anima, dating back to well before the foundation of the kingdom of Mistral.

The forebearers of that Kingdom believed strongly in the physical and spiritual healing powers of the natural hot springs. Even as modern society rose, their prominence did not decay and the custom integrated flawlessly into the everyday lives of the common people. Public baths were an equalizer in a way. Regardless of status or money, everyone stripped bare and shared in the relaxing atmosphere together.

Having said that, it wasn't a custom I got to partake in very often. It was much more popular in the more mountainous regions of the continent where the natural hot springs were more oft to exist. Not in the flat farmlands where I grew up or the seaside of that fishing village I ran away to.

The last time I had gone as a child and… well, I didn't really take much of a chance to appreciate it. The thing is, Jaune and I used to bathe together long past what was considered an acceptable age for that sort of thing. Something we couldn't exactly do in a public bathhouse that felt the need to separate us by gender. To my understanding it used to not be that way, but modern society had deemed it _inappropriate_ and so now even traditional bathhouses saw the need to separate man and woman.

Dad dragged Jaune off to the men's side while my mom and sisters basically had to carry me flailing and screaming into the women's. I can still remember the absolute embarrassment on my mom's face the whole time we were there. For some reason that has stuck with me all this time. I almost wonder if it's because I feel some sense of guilt towards the woman who birthed me and my twin. She never brought me back, that's for sure.

That would make this the first time I had entered one of my own free will. Beacon Academy was an international school and as such, they had many facilities to accommodate their foreign students and help them feel more at home. One of such facilities being a bathhouse that looked like it had been plucked right from Mistral itself.

The traditional-style building was incredibly out of place among the taller, more western-style student dorms it had been built next to, almost giving the entire scene an identity crisis when looked at from a distance in the dying light of day. Ruby didn't even appear to notice, long used to the contradiction and guiding us towards it without the slightest hitch in her step.

Every step I took meanwhile was with a noticeable hobble. My sprained ankle had yet to heal and probably wouldn't until morning. It had been a long day already, one that was hopefully almost over. My brother and I had arrived in the late morning and had been guided around by Ruby for a couple hours. Then the fight against the Fall Maiden where I spent all my Aura and got my ass thoroughly handed to me. To cap it all off, I got a nice lovely ghost-hunt dumped into my lap. So yeah, a bath sounded pretty awesome right now.

I just had to make it there. Fortunately I had my brother to lend me his shoulder. "If anything happens, just call me." Jaune was repeating to the younger girl for like the fifth time now, looking down at me every couple seconds as if he was afraid I was going to have a psychotic break right here and now.

"She'll be fine~!" Ruby drawled, waving off his concerns and looking back to give me two enthusiastic thumbs-up. "I'll make sure no one touches her, you have my word." This was starting to feel a little patronizing, considering this was coming from a girl two years younger than me. Of course, I didn't exactly have the right to complain seeing as I wouldn't open my mouth in the first place.

We reached the building, two automatic glass doors sliding open to let us in. Inside was a small tiled entryway where first you would remove your shoes before taking a step up onto the wooden floor of the main hall. The air inside was humid and if you looked up at the ceiling you could see a small layer of steam.

Once our shoes were off and we entered the wooden section, the next step was to split up. The men's side was to the right and marked by a blue curtain. The women's to the left, marked by pink. Ruby walked towards the women's without hesitance, but Jaune and I paused before going our separate ways.

"You'll be alright." My brother rested a hand on my cheek and stroked it gently. I simply closed my eyes and leaned into his touch.

This would be the first time since entering Beacon that we separated from one another. Although calling it a separation was maybe a tad dramatic? We were going to be in the same building and only out of sight from one another for no more than thirty or so minutes. Still, I couldn't help but feel apprehensive going to meet new people without him by my side.

"You coming?" Ruby called, stopping at the curtain to look back.

Jaune gave one last nod and stepped back, hand leaving my face. I watched him go until he disappeared behind the blue curtain on the opposite end. The whole time he walked, he continued to look back at me over his shoulder. Only once he was gone did I finally turn around and hobble after Ruby. We went through the pink curtain together and came into a big locker room.

"About time." An exasperated tone immediately greeted us. The voice belonged to a girl my age with unmanageably long golden blonde hair in a ponytail. You would have thought she only just gotten here herself, still dressed in a jacket, cargo pants, and orange shirt. Her body language said otherwise as she stood leaned against the wall with crossed arms.

"Yang, you waited for us?" Ruby sounded only a little surprised, but that emotion was far more outweighed by the obvious elation. She skipped over to the blonde and the girl called Yang rubbed her hair affectionately. "Joan, this is my big sister Yang Xiao Long." Ruby introduced, stepping aside and gesturing at me. "Yang, this is Joan Arc."

Their brief interaction alone had been enough to give me the impression they were close, sisterly even. However, I would not have guessed they were actually blood just looking at them. On top of that, they had different last names. Sounded like a complicated family situation, and that's coming from me.

"You're smaller than I thought looking at you from the crowd." Yang stepped away from the wall and extended her left hand towards me.

"Ah- Ah!" Ruby ran around to get between us, swatting at Yang's hand as if it was infected and would give me cooties or something. "Joan doesn't do handshakes-" She started, Yang's face immediately lighting up as she no doubt thought of something I wasn't going to like, "Or hugs!" Her little sister quickly added and the smile slipped. "In fact, no physical contact at all. Okay?"

I felt a small smile involuntarily tug at my lips and had to fight it down. It wasn't like all physical contact was off the table. However, I wasn't about to correct her either. It would start with something simple like a handshake and next thing I knew they would be all chummy with me, wanting to touch my hair, paint my fingernails and who knew what else. No thank you.

"Okay, okay. Geez, calm down." Yang backed away from her sister with both hands held up. "So I'm not allowed to touch her and from what you've said she doesn't exactly talk. Can I at least look at her or is that a no-go too?"

"Hmm…" Ruby put a hand on her chin and looked to actually consider the question before just giving up to ask me. "Can she look at you?" I rolled my eyes and nodded. "Looking at her is acceptable." She then declared, nodding at her sister with chin held high and hands on her hips. Apparently she was my official spokeswoman and presented herself thusly.

"Thanks sis, I think I got that." Yang shook her head and began to walk towards the lockers. "Now come on. The others are waiting."

"Wait for me!" Ruby was after her sister a heartbeat later and I slowly trailed after them, the three of us all stopping in front of neighboring lockers.

I placed Crocea Mors in the locker first and then silently began to undress, starting with the long orange sleeves. They slid off far too easy, after I only barely loosened the leather straps holding them in place. My short, thin arms were revealed as they fell to the floor and I bent down to pick them up and place them next to my sword. Next came my brother's hoodie, his scent barely lingering on it any more. It had been several days since he last wore it so I guess it was about time I made him put it on again. Finally, my bra came off and left my top completely exposed.

"Whoa there, you're hiding all kinds of surprises." Yang said, not even trying to hide her perverted tone. I glanced at her to see lecherous lilac eyes observing the shape of my now exposed breasts. Instinctively, my eyes also darted to hers and compared us right down to our rosy pink nipples. The two of us seemed to share the same cup size, but I think hers might have had a couple centimeters on me.

"Blondes," Ruby grumbled as if betrayed, her hands covering her own petite bust and silver eyes glaring longingly at mine. It was hard not to blame her. Jaune's hoodie several sizes too large did a pretty excellent job of hiding my real figure. I thought about telling her not to mind. That some guys appreciated smaller breasts. My brother for example, if the porn magazines "hidden" under his bed were any indication.

Too bad that would require me to speak.

That and Ruby didn't actually have much to be ashamed of, her small breasts complimenting her figure nicely. If I was being honest, than proportionately, Yang's too fit her better in almost every way when compared to mine. The other blonde had it all: Tone figure, slim waist, and some healthy meat on her hips. The only thing big about me were my boobs, everything else petite and lanky. Kind of typical really, the one thing about me that could be considered large and it was something my brother preferred small.

Of course, if Jaune and I had a normal relationship that wouldn't be something to be concerned about.

Even Yang's luscious blonde hair was well-maintained and almost seemed to shine when compared to my own messy locks with odd ends poking out all over the place. The only thing it looked like I had over her was two full arms. It was a petty thought, but I was a petty person and my eyes had stopped to linger on Yang's robotic appendage. It was spray-painted black and gold, the metal making up everything below the elbow of her right arm.

"Oh this?" Yang tapped it with her left knuckles, making a solid metallic rap that echoed throughout the rest of the locker room. "Some fanatic with a sword cut it off almost two months ago." That timing would place it right around during the Beacon invasion. "Don't worry. One of my other teammates got him back by cutting him in half. Saved me and the person I ran in to save in the first place." It was kind of hard to tell what tone Yang was speaking in. I got the impression she was making light of everything, but I also thought maybe she was just putting on a brave face and quickly trying to rush the topic along.

Which was easy enough. I wasn't going to say anything and was content to let it be, further undressing while she rambled about it pointlessly. My navy-blue, knee high stockings were next to go. Followed by my jean shorts and finally my bright pink panties, leaving me completely bare. Pink wasn't really my color but… Jaune had been the one to pick them out, so I figured he must like them. In case you were wondering.

Yang seemed to realize I had lost interest and I heard her give an undoubtedly relieved sigh. There was a small hiss as she hit a latch and disconnected the metallic arm from the rest of her body, exposing the rough and scarred flesh of her stub. She placed the arm inside the locker and slammed the door closed, perhaps a little more strongly than she intended.

This was really the first sign of anything that had been lost from the Battle of Beacon that I had seen. Everyone keeps telling me what a disaster it was. Ozpin was worried about this poltergeist that got created from it. Yet it was all hearsay to me until now.

I closed my locker next and then the two of us had to wait a little while longer for Ruby to get off all the numerous articles of clothing she wore, most of it looking just as troublesome to get back on. Finally she finished and we made our way over to the showering area. It was just a small corner of the room with a short, waist-high brickwall to separate it from the lockers. About ten shower heads lined the wall with little stools set in front of them.

Yang took the closest stool and I took one next to her. "Let me help you." Ruby remained standing, stopping behind her sister and squirting some shampoo into her hand. The older sister made a complicated expression before just hitting the dial of the shower, accepting her help with frustrated silence.

I would love it if Jaune would wash my hair for me again. Like he used to do up until only a couple years ago now. Before our parents made us stop. Yang had no idea how lucky she was, having a sibling around who would still do it for you. What's more, no one would judge them for it or think it was weird. Hell, most people might find the scene endearing or even cute.

Flop one of their genders, however, and suddenly it's immoral.

I hit the dial of the shower, letting out a satisfied moan as the warm water sprayed over my still sore and aching body. Until I managed to sleep, my Aura was going to remain shot and unable to heal my injuries such as my sprained foot or bruised shoulder. My biceps too continued to ache so badly that even just raising my hands over my head to wash my hair was uncomfortable.

After several minutes of washing, Yang and Ruby swapped places. It looked difficult for her and it was definitely clumsy, but Yang did her best to return the favor to her little sister. The two of them were chatting amicably about something I didn't understand so I just went back to ignoring them, continuing to scrub myself clean.

At some point I had to talk to them if I was going to find out something about these fainting incidents. If it had just been Ruby, I think I might have been comfortable enough to speak. Something about her big sister made me uneasy, however. I think it was because deep down I realized she and I weren't compatible.

Ruby was at least socially awkward, if in a different way than I was. She wasn't good at talking with others, but she at least put her best foot forward and kept going no matter how many times she tripped and stumbled. I just withdrew into myself and preferred to let conversation pass me by.

Yang was neither of these things. She was good with people and probably with conversation too. Confident, sexy, and all around charismatic. If not for her relationship with Ruby or the fact that she was sensitive about her arm, I don't think there would be a single thing I had to get along with her about. That wouldn't stop her from trying as it never mattered to those socialites how much I would rather be left alone.

"So Joan, how about your brother?" What's more, the question she first asked me was the one I had been dreading the most. The moment she started showing interest in my twin. "You were both pretty badass down in the ring today. Is he as shy as you or…" She trailed off and when I turned to look at her, the smile she sent in my direction was nothing short of suggestive.

The heat of the water felt like it doubled and my cheeks blazed with red as I felt my blood begin to boil. The one nice thing about our old village was that we didn't have anyone else our age trying to hang out with us. It was either old geezers, or middle-aged parents with little ones significantly younger than us. Which while boring, meant I didn't have hussies like this gawking at my brother.

"He's really nice." My official spokeswoman chirped up for me, grinning brightly as her sister washed her hair. "He said I must be the cutest girl in the _whole_ school." Ruby puffed out her modest chest with pride and sat a little more straight in her stool.

"Then he's got good taste." Yang giggled, winking at me as if in approval. "Can't wait to meet him myself. Too bad it's not mixed bathing. I would have loved to see if he was hiding anything like you." Her eyes lingered on my chest, but I knew there was a very different part of the body she had in mind. For the first time in my life, I was thankful that they separated the bath houses by gender.

I also decided I did not like this Yang girl one bit.

We finished washing, thankfully without any more conversation about my brother, and entered the main part of the building. The actual baths were behind a sliding wooden door and just opening it a crack let a whole waft of steam to come rolling out. We hurried inside and quickly shut the door behind us.

"Ruby, over here." A prim, curt voice spoke out to us from within the steam. The billowing condensation was so thick we couldn't even see where the voice had come from. Ruby navigated us around several baths, finally taking us to one in the corner and two girls emerged from the fog.

"Alright Joan," Ruby stepped to the side and gestured broadly to the two sitting up to their necks in the water. "This is my partner Weiss Schnee." She started with the one on the right, a white-haired girl with her hair tied up in a sideways bun to keep it out of the water. She had blue eyes lighter than mine with a scar awfully close to the left one.

She didn't exactly have a pleasant look on her face, seemingly scowling at me from her position in the pool. However, I was going to let that slide after hearing her last name. Schnee. As in, she belonged to that family who controlled any and all Dust flow in the world. If I made friends and played nicey-nice with her and I could get enough Dust to stock Crocea Iras up for the rest of Jaune's life.

"Next to her is Yang's partner, Blake Belladonna." Ruby finished. I almost had to double-take when I my eyes moved to the black-haired girl, because on top of her head were two unmistakable cat ears. She was a faunus.

Now I don't know if you know this or not but… the faunus and Schnee Dust Corporation aren't exactly on the friendliest of terms. Some of the practices by the current CEO of the company are less than ethical, to put it lightly. The company employs more faunus workers than any other in the world which you think would make it a pioneer towards peace and equality between our two races.

You would also be mistaken. Just because they hired faunus, didn't mean they cared for them. The working conditions were miserable, the pay atrocious, and there were no benefits so to speak. Some investigative media has even brought into question the legality of the way the company treated its faunus employees. Like with most things regarding the faunus however, it ended up getting swept under the rug as society refused to acknowledge the growing problem.

I knew all this and I'm from the boonies. Yet these city folk wondered why the White Fang attacked Beacon not two months ago. It was like people had never heard of such concepts as cause and effect. I would go on about the racism and how backwards it was in a world where Grimm viewed both species as its only targets, but I also never felt comfortable bringing it up considering my great-great-grandfather had fought in the last war to make sure they remained enslaved. Crazy to think that up until only a few generations ago my family used to be faunus slave owners.

Probably shouldn't mention that to the cat girl who was looking at me strangely with unnerving yellow eyes. Then again, if she and a Schnee could bathe together side-by-side, maybe it was safe to say she wouldn't judge me for the sins of my ancestors? All the same, I wasn't going to bring it up.

"Blake and Weiss," Ruby now addressed her team as she slid into the pool, splashing the water over the edges and onto the floor where it slid into the drains. "This is Joan Arc. You may remember her from that awesome fight today?" She gave a satisfied sigh of content, sinking up to her chin in the water. Yang joined her a second later, making sure her ponytail hung over the ledge.

I stepped up to join them, feeling the eyes of the two girls I just met assessing me. Entering baths was kind of tricky for me because of my Semblance. The ability triggered automatically whether I liked it or not, meaning if I tried to go in feet first I was just going to end up standing on top of the water. So what I had to do was bend my legs at the knees and stick my kneecaps in first. It was something I had quite a bit of practice at, but that never made it look any less awkward to those seeing it for the first time.

"...Nice to meet you." Weiss said several seconds after I entered, trying to decide if the way I got in was because I was just plain quirky or there was some other reason behind it. This would be a good opportunity for me to explain myself. You know, break the tension, clear up the misunderstanding and present myself as a normal person. So of course I did the exact opposite and just kept my mouth shut.

"It was quite the fight." Blake turned her eyes off me, looking a little further into the bath. "I've never seen anyone injure Pyrrha quite like that before. I didn't even think it was possible." Her tone set me immediately on edge, not because of any hostility or anything like that. No, it was because she was directing the conversation towards someone who until this moment I hadn't even known was here.

"Geh-" That was the first noise out of my mouth Yang had the pleasure of hearing and it certainly seemed to amuse her if the huge, shit-eating grin was any indication. I didn't care about that right now, however. My eyes were looking at one and only one person.

"This is a first for me as well." Pyrrha Nikos emerged from the steam and scooted closer to us. Her broken arm in a sling was covered by a plastic bag to protect it from the hot water. She settled next to Weiss before emerald eyes landed on me. "Hello again," She greeted in a sing-song voice more terrifying than any poltergeist and a smile straight from the box of Pumpkin Pete's Cereal.


	8. Pyrrha Nikos

**AN:** I've had a couple reviews point this out now and I would like for the record state it wasn't my intention, although I did kind of acknowledge it was going to end up looking this way.

Essentially, the only change to the Beacon side of Canon I have made was removing Jaune from the picture so he could go dick(heh) around with his sister. And would you look at that... everything (more or less) turned out for the better without him being there. Again, I'm not trying to say that would be the case. Obviously, for this to work I have to take some liberties. I think the person this change had the biggest effect on was Pyrrha. Not having Jaune, who was her partner and leader, forced her to make changes and mature in different ways than she did in Canon which led to different choices which led to her... not dying.

I feel like I'm digging myself a hole here... No matter how I word this I'm just making it sound like I blame Jaune for everything that happened at Beacon. You're just going to have to take my word for it and believe me when I say that's not that case. Or you know, don't. Just assume I'm lying to you and that I hate Jaune with ever fibre of my being.

Either way is fine.

This chapter and the last one were originally supposed to be one chapter, or at the very least I planned it out that way in my outline. However, because of the word-count and to also keep the chapter from feeling overstuffed, I decided to end it where I did instead. As some noticed, it gave that chapter a bit of an incomplete feeling. This is actually the third time this has happened to me already. In my outline, chapters 3, 4, and 5 were all supposed to be a single chapter and yet I wrote so much for each one that I felt better splitting them into parts.

I know some readers prefer having the longer chapters and I used to be one of them. Lately, however, opening a document up to see 8k+ words looming at me tends to feel intimidating and like a bit of a wall. I'm getting soft in my old age or something. So for that reason, I just feel more comfortable splitting things up if I think it's appropriate. If I think it's a detriment to the chapter I won't do it, but if I think it can be reasonably pulled off, expect me to try to keep the chapters shorter than the 6k word mark.

* * *

Beta: Wildstraydog

* * *

 **Twin's Game**

The First Day (Part VII)

 _Pyrrha Nikos_

* * *

I was starting to get dizzy.

This could have been caused by a numerous many things. For instance, maybe it was the days without sleep? Maybe it was having my Aura completely drained and then forced to hobble all over the place on a sprained ankle? Maybe it was this steaming hot bath that was scrambling my brain?

All of these things were a likely possibility and might have all been contributing factors. However, I think it is far more likely that the cause was having my mortal enemy, Pyrrha Nikos, sit right in front of me. Grinning at me like we were long reunited pals with those stupid, perfect fucking teeth of hers. There wasn't a single strand of hair out of place, her flaming locks tied into a perfect bun to keep it out of the water. Sweat glistened off her slightly red skin, rolling down over her perfect breasts before dripping into the bath.

Did I mention everything about her was fucking perfect?

If not for the arm my brother had broken wrapped in a sling and then covered in a plastic bag, she would have been completely and utterly flawless. Holy shit this girl pisses me off just by even existing. I couldn't even tell if the steam was coming from the water or my ears anymore.

"How is your ankle?" Pyrrha asked in that perfect, maidenly voice of hers as if she was actually concerned for me and my well being. I wanted to snap back by asking her how the arm was. If I tried, however, I'm pretty sure the only noises my mouth would make would be unintelligible garbage.

So as per usual, I kept my trap shut.

"She's having trouble walking on it still." My unofficial spokeswoman piped up instead, winking at me with one silver eye as if to tell me she had this. "I'm sure she'll be fine by morning though. Joan appreciates your concern." No I don't. "You'll have to forgive her for not talking. She's pretty shy and doesn't speak very much."

"Oh?" Pyrrha shifted in the bath to sit a little closer to the rest of us. "I'm sorry, I wasn't aware of that. You talked to your brother in the ring so I just assumed…"

"Wait, you heard her talk?" Yang leaned forward, lilac eyes wide and grin equally so. "What did she say? Don't hold out on us." She kept glancing back at me as if I were some newly discovered species.

"Hmm…" Pyrrha placed a finger from her unbroken arm on her chin and glanced up as she seemed to recall. "I believe it was something like "Now kick her ass," if I remember correctly-"

"No shit!" Yang slapped the water and sprayed droplets everywhere before turning back to me. You would think we just became best friends going by the look on her face. "Little miss talkative has got a potty mouth?" I hardly considered the word "ass" foul language anymore, considering how volatile my thoughts often became. Seemed appropriate, however, that Ruby's big sister would somehow find this amusing.

"I hardly see how this kind of talk is productive." The Schnee heiress snipped, as prim and proper as I would imagine someone like her to be. Nice to know that she was exactly the type of person I thought before she even opened her mouth. "I'm far more interesting in knowing about your background. Where did you train? And where did your brother get that weapon of his?" Makes sense that she would be interested in Crocea Iras, considering the amount of Dust it used.

"Jaune and Joan trained outside the kingdom in a remote village." Ruby again answered for me. Thankfully, she had my brother had talked quite extensively during our little tour and so she knew far more about us than I was actually comfortable with. At least it kept me from having to try and say anything. "He said something about both their weapons having belonged to their great-great-grandfather."

Blake leaned a little more forward, the cat ears atop her head twitching. "Sounds like you and your brother had it tough. I know a little about what it's like having to train outside the kingdoms." For a moment I was afraid she was going to ask about my grandfather, but thankfully it was the first part of Ruby's statement she was more interested in. "Did you have anyone else or was it just the two of you?"

"Just them… I think?" Ruby ended up glancing at me so I nodded. It was a little more complicated than that, but I wasn't going to get into the specifics even if I was using my own voice. That would raise way too many questions.

"It certainly explains your…" Weiss paused, as if looking for the least insulting words she could possibly find. "Less-than-refined combat style." She ended up settling on. I don't think it sounded nearly as pleasant as she was going for, even her own mouth twisting as if she just realized how poorly it came out.

"Don't mind Ice Queen." Yang leaned back against the edge of the bath and grinned almost predatorily at her teammate. "Sometimes she could learn to be like you and just keep her mouth shut. At least until she learns to play nice with others."

"Hey-" Weiss started.

"She's not the only one who's thinking it, however." Blake interjected, earning a somewhat surprised set of looks from everyone else. "I'm not talking about myself." She quickly added and the others relaxed. "Most of the students here don't really know what it's like. They're not training to fight like we are. So to them it's normal to be afraid and scared in combat. They see us as somehow above that… stronger than that. Seeing us fight without a code of honor sets them on edge. Worries them."

I thought that might be the case. If anything, everyone I met so far didn't seem nearly as concerned as I thought they would be for the tactics Jaune and I used in the ring. The attack on Beacon probably had a lot to do with that and these women had all matured considerably from the experience. They had been humbled in a way. Those not training to be Huntresses wouldn't share that same viewpoint.

"There's nothing to be worried about anymore though, right?" Ruby asked with the same cheery optimism as always. "The White Fang has been driven out of Vale. Cinder's been defeated. And everyone… everyone…" She stuttered on her words, suddenly looking down and staring into the water as if she meant to submerge herself into it.

This would make the first time I had truly seen a look of melancholy on her face. Certainly, she had looked reproachful after she set me off and nearly gave me a full-out panic attack. But this… this was a sadness far deeper than I thought she was capable of. And it happened so fast too, as if someone had just thrown a switch in her head and reminded her of all the bad things in the world.

"Hey…" Yang drew closer to her sister, wrapping her tightly in a one-armed embrace and burying Ruby's head into the crook of her neck. "It's alright." She whispered soothingly.

"Ruby lost a friend during the attack." Blake filled me in quietly.

It was a shock, to be honest. This little girl two years younger than me who radiated pure brightness had experienced a tragedy I couldn't even imagine. I never had any "friends" or anything really growing up. It was always just my family. It was always just my brother. He was the only thing I ever needed. Because of that, I also never got to experience the tragic emptiness that came from having someone ripped from your life. To think it could even affect a girl like Ruby… "shocking" was the only word I could think to describe it.

"She's right, however." Weiss cleared her throat after several uncomfortable seconds of silence. "We don't really have anything to worry about anymore. Not after Pyrrha dealt with their ring-leader, Cinder." That was the second time they used that name but it was still unfamiliar to me. I may have lived in the boonies, but it seemed like the name of the person behind the attack would have been something I heard about. Instead you only ever heard everything being blamed on the White Fang.

So remember how I mentioned how shitty the treatment of faunus was? The White Fang was pretty much a direct result of that. When they had first been founded, they were a non-violent protest group. As how most of these things go, however, the results weren't coming fast enough and non-violence eventually meant bloody revolution. Adam Taurus had been the face of the White Fang during the invasion so to say, but I heard he had been killed during the battles. Sienna Khan, the actual leader of the White Fang, was denouncing his actions. It wasn't entirely clear yet if she had no knowledge of his plans ahead of time or not, but for now at least they weren't in a position to try anything again.

That by no means meant Beacon was safe and the girls had yet to bring up anything about the fainting incidents. Ozpin was either doing a really good job covering up the attacks or these girls were far more oblivious than I was giving them credit for. Too wrapped up in their own little world and busy patting themselves on the back for a job well done.

"I hardly did anything," Pyrrha proved my point with a polite giggle and a dismissive wave. "Ozpin fought her before I did and my team held her off long enough for Ruby to show up and weaken her. The only thing I did was deliver the finishing blow." How modest. It made me sick listening to her talk in that holier-than-thou voice of hers, even when she was trying to pass of her achievements onto others.

The champion than scooted a little closer towards the still slightly dejected Ruby. "I mean it honestly, if you hadn't been there… many more would have died. Ozpin, my team, me." She paused and I could have sworn I saw something like self-loathing repressed somewhere down inside of her. It was almost enough to trick me into thinking she was a normal human like the rest of us. "I didn't deserve to be saved by you."

There was no way I could possibly understand the meaning of her words. I got the impression she was saying it because she had done something horrible to Ruby in the past. However, I couldn't possibly know what that was with so little context. Even if I could bring myself to speak, I don't think it was a topic anyone wanted to talk about. The air around us had gotten thick and solemn. Not just because of the steam either.

Ruby gave a big sniff before finally pulling her head away from her sister. She then gave the biggest, most bright smile I had seen from her yet. It was obvious she was somewhat forcing it, but you could almost feel the genuine emotions she was trying to put into it all the same. The whole room became a little brighter because of her effort.

"It's okay, Pyrrha." Ruby swam a little forward and rested a hand gently over the plastic bag of the Fall Maiden's broken arm. "I know it wasn't your fault… and you're my friend. I'm just glad everyone else is okay." Pyrrha smiled back and everyone seemed to untense a little. Their little drama show was over for now. Thank God for that too. I was a depressing enough person as it was, I didn't need everyone around me to be the same.

Ruby then turned back to me and flashed an apologetic grin. "Sorry about that. I'm okay now. I know you didn't come here to hear about all the bad things that happened." Well, actually she was kind of wrong about that. I was only here specifically because bad things were _still_ happening. Not that she knew about it.

All the same, I shook my head and forced myself to give her a forgiving smile. It was the most I could do, but it seemed to be enough.

"While we're talking about bad things, though…" Yang looked over at her own partner. "How's Velvet doing? I hear the stress finally got to her and she collapsed." Oh! I had to keep myself from actively doing a fist pump. The conversation had somehow naturally turned to the incidents without me even having to open my mouth.

Blake's cat ears flattened and she looked like she swallowed something bitter. "I haven't been able to see her yet. The doctors won't even let her team in. They said tomorrow." She paused and looked down at the water in contemplation. "Something's not right… if it was just stress, they wouldn't be quarantining her like this. I feel like something else must be going on."

"You're being paranoid again." Weiss chided as if Blake's attitude was par for the course and she was getting tired of it. "Velvet used a lot of stamina during the invasion fighting so earnestly. It's just finally catching up with her. They're not quarantining her, they're just taking extra precautions to make sure she's fit. Both mentally and physically."

Their faunus teammate hesitated before giving a swift nod. "You're probably right." She said with a soft sigh and smile settling over her features.

I felt like I got it now. The incidents weren't becoming a big deal yet because of the same reason people didn't believe in fairy tales. They were ignoring a more logical point of view simply because it didn't set inside their accepted norms. They were all in danger and yet all of them were turning a blind eye to it, even these girls who had three people with powers from fairy tales sitting right next to them. That would all change once enough of these incidents piled up or someone too big to ignore got taken out.

It wasn't exactly much, but I at least knew the name of one of the victims now. Ozpin would have given me the information if I asked, but this was preferable for me. It was better to do research from the ground, not get the answers from some man sitting in a chair above it all. Tomorrow I would see if I could meet this "Velvet" girl and get a first-person view of one of the victims.

I got the answer I needed and now I just needed an excuse to get out of here. It would have been nice if that was something I could formulate by myself, but unless my vocal chords decided to start working I was pretty much helpless but to wait for someone else to make an excuse to leave. Which fortunately did end up happening, but the problem was that excuse came from the person I wanted it to the least.

"I think perhaps it is time I got out." Pyrrha Nikos stood in the bath, giving me a complete view of her perfect body. Damn did I feel inadequate looking at her, every curve of her body like a work of art and not so much as a single blemish or defect to be noted. "I'm starting to feel a little light-headed and my arm isn't taking the heat too well." She pulled at the plastic bag for emphasis. It was no small point of pride for me, knowing my brother and I managed to cause her any level of discomfort.

"We've been here a while too." Weiss agreed, her and Blake both starting to stand themselves. Naturally, I ended up analyzing their naked bodies too, ranking them all accordingly by threat level they posed to ensnaring my brother.

Ruby was at the bottom of the list, but maybe that's because I was being a little biased? I kind of liked Ruby, or at the very least tolerated her. Her body type seemed to line up with what Jaune liked- small and petite- but that was because of her age more than anything. They even got along, having similar personalities, but if anything that gave Ruby more of a little sister appeal rather than sexual partner. I know, ironic that I would make that distinction considering my feelings but let's just agree to ignore it.

Blake ranked next on my list of threat levels, but that wasn't saying much. She was quiet and I really didn't have much to go off of her yet. Her bust was average but her ass… God damn. Note to self, don't let Jaune walk behind her. So long as I accomplished that, she seemed innocuous enough to not catch my brother's eye.

Yang was next but this was purely personality… although her body certainly wasn't doing her any disservice. Jaune might not have had a thing for thicker girls, but I got the impression if Yang came onto a man, he would have to be flaming gay to say no and even then I wasn't positive. She seemed to show some interest in him too already. Dangerous indeed.

Weiss… if I had to show you a picture to describe my brother's ideal body type, she would be my first, second, and third choice. What's worse, she had a reason to be interested in my brother thanks to Crocea Iras and for that same reason he also stood to benefit by getting closer to her. Threat level: very high.

Which just left Pyrrha Nikos. The less said about her the better. Let's just leave it at that and move on.

Yang and Ruby also voiced their agreement to get out now, despite the fact that the three of us hadn't been in nearly as long as the rest of them. I wasn't about to complain about the decision. The sooner I got out of here and the sooner I could reunite with my brother. I also wasn't about to let these women run into him by chance without me there by his side. That was the last thing I needed.

So the six of us set out for the locker room. Getting out of the water and exposing myself to the cooler air was hardly a pleasant experience, but I had to keep my priorities straight and maintain pace with the others. Even if my body would rather have just submerged itself back into the pleasantly warm bath. Leaving the first room was even worse, the air outside it several degrees cooler still.

What's more, I had no choice but to hobble the whole way. The only source of warmth I received was the sharp hot pain shooting up my leg with every step I took. Ruby offered a shoulder but I refused with a shake of the head. When we finally stopped at our respective lockers, wouldn't you believe it that I just so happened to have picked the one next to Pyrrha's.

"We didn't get much of a chance to talk this time." The Fall Maiden continued to talk to me as if that whole initiation match hadn't happened. As if I couldn't remember the pure guilt painted across her face after she blasted us with a tornado. "I'm hoping to have more opportunities in the future. You and your brother both seem very interesting." And there it was. By me and my brother, she was only talking about my brother.

He was the one who caught her eye in the arena. It was he who made the fight close and managed to wound her. It was he who was a fan of Pumpkin Pete's cereal, not even recognizing her other, more notable achievements.

I didn't say anything and just continued to dry myself with a borrowed towel. Pyrrha didn't appear bothered by my silence, already accepting that I wasn't going to say anything from the beginning.

She didn't wear her bronze armor from earlier, the equipment probably too cumbersome to get on with her arm in a sling like it was. So after abandoning the wet plastic bag she struggled to put on a simple red hoodie, not even bothering with a bra. After it was on she slipped the sling back over her arm and then fought with a pair of jeans. She must have caught me looking because she gave a comforting smile and said, "I'm fine, don't worry. My Aura should mend the break in a couple days." Apparently she mistook my glances for concern and failed to see the silent glee I got out of watching her have difficulty with something as simple as getting dressed.

I finished long before she did, despite my own difficulties getting Jaune's hoodie over my head with my sore biceps. After, I hobbled over to where Blake and Weiss were waiting, the two of them quicker than the others. Weiss was dressed in a sparkling blue dress that made her look like a princess. Blake wore a white coat, which if not for that she would have only had a very revealing black top and terribly tight black pants. It was enough that I was considering reevaluating her threat level.

They both nodded to me as I approached before an uncomfortable silence settled between us. They had been talking before my arrival, but it would appear they didn't know how to proceed with me now around. I imagine they wanted to somehow include me into a conversation, but without Ruby right here to interpret my silence, they were at a loss of how to do that. They didn't have to suffer long, the other three approaching shortly after and a pleasant conversation settling over the whole group. I preferred to stay out of it, lagging a step behind as if to camouflage myself and not get dragged into it. To my chagrin, Pyrrha fell into step with me and the two of us walked in silence. Perhaps she also felt a little removed from the other four, being the only other one not a member of the same team? That didn't mean I wanted her near me though.

As we stepped out of the locker rooms, we heard a second conversation. This one from voices more masculine, but unfortunately all too familiar. Peeking over the shoulders of the girls in front of me confirmed my fears. Jaune was surrounded by the male members of Pyrrha's team. It made sense in hindsight, if she was here than of course her team would be as well. And I sent my brother by himself to meet with them.

Despite that, he seemed to be holding up okay. Russel had draped an arm over my brother's shoulder and was waving his other hand animatedly while recounting some story. His face still looked bruised from when I used it for batting practice, but that didn't seem to deter him too much. Jaune for his part was just smiling politely and nodding along.

Sky was leaning against the wall next to him and looked to be laughing along at whatever tale it was Russel was currently weaving. Dove was the only one that seemed to be slightly removed from the conversation, standing a little off to the side and looking as stoic as ever. It was hard to get a read on him, but Russel and Sky already appeared to have put the match behind them. At least as far as my brother was involved, considering he wasn't the one to knock either of them out.

"Hey boys~" Yang called out to them, far too flirtatiously for my tastes. As expected, all conversation between them stopped immediately and I could practically see the drool from here. At least my brother had the decency to look troubled with her attention solely on him. "Why don't you introduce me to your new friend?" She asked, walking forward with an all too noticeable sway to her hips.

Sky was the first to find his voice, stepping forward and extending a hand towards my brother as if showing off some new product. "This is Jaune Arc. He's… not too bad." He said after several silent seconds of deliberation. "We were talking about our match today. Damn, is his sister fucking brutal though." Apparently they couldn't see my petite form behind the bodies of the other four girls and Yang single-handedly hogging all their attention.

"Not bad indeed." Yang ignored his comment about me entirely, now looking my brother up and down from up close. He was still wearing his Beacon uniform, the suit framing him quite nicely with the pauldron of Crocea Iras on his shoulder. His scraggly blonde hair was damp, having not been properly dried and many of the locks clung to his forehead.

Yang leaned a little closer to him, bending entirely at the waist to no doubt give him a better angle to look at her cleavage. "Nice to meet you." She extended her left, non-robotic hand. "Name's Yang Xiao Long. I'm Ruby's big sister."

"Ah-" Jaune took a step forward, freeing himself from the arm Russel had draped over his shoulder. It was with a valiant but failing effort that he tried to keep his sapphire eyes maintained squarely on Yang's face. A fact she no doubt knew. "Nice to meet you." He started to extend his right hand, immediately withdrew it and extended the left to clasp hers.

"Hey, you talk." Yang laughed, her voice sounding more and more to me like nails screeching on a chalkboard. She then hiked her fake hand over her shoulder and gestured to her remaining two teammates. "The girls behind me are Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna. We're all on a team with Ruby." Jaune glanced past Yang and to the other two girls, his eyes only momentarily lingering on them before he finally found me. The moment he did, he let go of Yang's hand and immediately began to make his way over.

"It's a pleasure." Weiss gave a courteous nod of the head and Blake followed suit. Jaune mumbled some kind of half-assed response back before he ended up walking right past them and up to me.

"Hey, you alright?" He asked, stopping in front of me and looking me over as if checking to make sure I washed properly. The attention brought the most natural smile to my face since I entered this building. Even with all these other women present and Yang throwing obvious flags at him, he ignored them all for me.

Our little reunion was ended a moment later by none other than Ruby, who all too proudly jumped directly between us. "Told you I would take care of her!" She placed a hand on either hip and jutted her chin out triumphantly. "I didn't let a single soul touch her and spoke for her and everything! It was all fine, just like I told you."

While listening to Ruby, I ended up letting my guard down. It was in that moment my greatest enemy saw fit to strike. "Hello again." The Fall Maiden extended a hand towards my brother, again flashing that annoyingly perfect smile of hers. "We really didn't get properly introduce ourselves in the arena. I'm Pyrrha Nikos."

Jaune looked just as caught off guard by her introduction. He had been so preoccupied with checking on me he hadn't even noticed her until now. As it should be. Now there was no ignoring her, however, and his eyes came to rest on the arm she had placed in the sling. The injury he had caused her.

"Please don't mind it." Pyrrha noticed his look too and quickly shook her head, flaming ponytail swinging back and forth with the motion. "This wasn't your fault. It's because I dropped my guard." She tried to reassure. I disagreed with her reasoning. Saying she dropped her guard implied it was her fault and completely took the credit from my brother's accomplishment. God, I hated this arrogant girl.

"Ah, okay then." Of course my brother bought until her bullshit and took her offered hand. "I'm Jaune Arc. I hope my sister hasn't caused you too much trouble?" He glanced down at me and I glared back, my mouth scrunching up to more properly display my distain.

"She's been quiet as a mouse." Oh, very funny. She was a comedian now too. Pyrrha giggled narcissistically at her own joke and Jaune joined in. This was turning into a nightmare, my brother already falling for her fake charms. I had to separate them and fast. Which was going to prove difficult with so many others around.

Or maybe not.

"We was wondering where you were." Russel Thrush started to approach us, hands in his pockets, eyes located solely on me. "You gave me a really good wallop in the ring earlier. I didn't even see that coming." He grinned at me with those disgusting yellow teeth of his and stopped just short of me and my brother.

"Russel…" Pyrrha's voice had changed, taking on a warning edge to it now. Her emerald eyes darted to me for a split second, before returning her focus to him. "We talked about this already. What happened in the ring, stays there. Their admission depended on that fight."

"We got it, we got it." Russel frowned, thankfully hiding his yellow teeth. "To prove we meant it too, we made nicey-nice with Jauney boy here. Isn't that right, buddy?" He looked at my brother, silently asking him to back them up.

"Y-Yeah." Jaune nodded quickly, I almost thought a little too much so. "Everything's good between us." Did they… threaten my brother to go along with them? The very thought made my blood boil and my fingers twitched as if intending to grab the handle of Crocea Mors.

"See? No worries." Russel removed a hand from his pocket and reached for the top of my head. "We all get along just fine-"

Everything around us stopped.

The moment his hand left his pocket and my heart-rate tripled. My breathing escalated and my chest began rising and falling at an expedited rhythm. I couldn't see my own eyes, but going by the sudden dryness that assaulted them and I imagined they had widened significantly. All these symptoms only got worse the closer his hand came for me. Only for it to stop inches shy. But not of his own volition.

Jaune had snagged him by the wrist and was now squeezing. Hard.

Russel's face contorted in pain despite the Aura that should have protected him. He looked up to Jaune to tell him off but any words died on his tongue the moment he saw his face. My brother who had been timid and almost looked bullied before had an absolutely terrifying expression, normally sapphire eyes almost a shade of purple.

"Don't. Touch. My. Little. Sister." Each word that dropped from his mouth hit with the force of a concussive bang. He hadn't even yelled, but the bone-chilling tone in which those words were said made them far more impactful than any scream I ever heard him make.

The very air around us dropped a couple degrees, making the once warm bath house resonate with an almost palpable chill. It wasn't just Russel who was frozen speechless, but everyone else in the room too. No one knew how to react or what to make of the sudden switch Pyrrha's partner had managed to trigger. Not even the Vytal Tournament Champion herself.

Dove had taken a step towards us, hand on the handle of his gun-sword, but other than that had locked up the same as everyone else. Sky had slipped while leaning on the wall and now sat on his butt. Yang's mouth had finally quit yapping, the girl with always something to say trying and failing multiple times a second to come up with any kind of tension breaker. Ruby's eyes darted around to anyone that would hold contact, trying to plead with a way to stop this. Blake had leaned away, mouth wider than I had yet to see it. Weiss appeared the least affected, one eyebrow quirked almost curiously and I could see the gears whirring beneath her shiny tiara as she reassessed my brother.

And me? I could only stare at my brother and the hard expression on his face. Every second more I looked at him felt like I was reminded of all the things I loved about him all over again. If I had been mad at him for something I couldn't even remotely remember what. No matter how concerned about the other girls I had become, it was a pointless anxiety.

No one could take him from me just like no one could take me from him. A lesson everyone in the room had just learned the not-so-nice way.

It was on that final note that we ended our first meeting with the only people that would become our friends here at Beacon Academy.


	9. A Line We Should not Cross

**AN:** It's still a bit early, but I hope you all have a good holiday and a happy New Year's! Saying it now, because I think the next time I post it will be 2018. Let's all give it our best next year! Now onto the fic related notes:

Sorry that the pacing is so abysmally slow. I would say it will pick up from here but... that would probably be a lie. This fic is more or less planned out on a day by day style outline. It's actually a little different from how I usually plot out my fics, but I figured I would give this style a try and see if it works for me. I didn't think it would take this many words to get through the first day alone, however... which is kind of typical of me, really. I'd like to think subsequent days won't take as long to get through but we'll find out.

I also feel like I have to say this because there seems to be some confusion in a couple of the reviews, but... Joan is the protagonist. I apologize if that wasn't apparent from the beginning as I wasn't trying to hide it. While Jaune is the deuteragonist, make no mistake; this is 100% an OC fic. The one who's going to receive the primary characterization is Joan and while Jaune will also grow and change along with his sister, his primary purpose is to serve more as a foil.

I get that might be a deal-breaker for some readers, but like I said at the beginning... I had a lot of reservations about starting this, choosing an OC as the main protagonist also being one of those reasons. Not just an OC, but an intentionally unlikable OC. I'm actually blown away by the number of reviewers who rather like Joan so far. Grateful that so many of you are willing to give her a chance, but surprised all the same, haha.

So once again, thank you to everyone who is reviewing and leaving constructive criticism. I know I'm kind of saying that a lot, but I'm really grateful a fic such as this has gotten as much attention as it has. With that, we move onto the final act of the first day.

* * *

Beta: Wildstraydog

* * *

 **Twin's Game**

The First Day (Part VIII)

 _A Line We Should not Cross_

* * *

Our first day at Beacon was finally over.

To say it had been an interesting one… would probably be a bit of an understatement. So many things had happened, I don't even feel like I could possibly remember it all. From the moment we had arrived we were greeted by a Silver-eyed warrior, fought a battle against the Fall Maiden and her team, and then had a ghost hunt dropped onto our laps. All of this and yet it felt like I was barely scratching the surface.

The number of times I had spoken to someone not my brother could be counted using one hand despite the fact that we met nearly a dozen new faces. This wasn't exactly anything new, as even back in our village I almost never interacted with another unless I absolutely had to. Jaune was always the one who had to do the socializing for the both of us. It was why he actually became somewhat decent at it, whereas I was a complete and utter mess. Practice really does make perfect.

All the practice in the world probably wouldn't have prepared us for how to react at the end of our most recent conversation.

You might have figured this out by now, but I don't exactly take it well when my brother starts intermingling with members of the opposite sex. Well, I finally learned today that Jaune takes it equally as poorly when one of them tries to interact with me.

Ruby had clung to me rather closely at one point in the day and the contact nearly sent me into cardiac arrest. Jaune had handled the situation as cool as an iceberg, coming up with an excuse and getting her off me. All without raising his voice or laying so much as a finger on her. Russel hadn't even touched me. He moved as if he meant to and that was all it took for the calm facade my brother had been putting on to show its cracks. You would have thought someone had tried to stab me with a knife, that's how venomous he became.

To be fair, Russel _had_ tried stabbing me, but that had been during our match. I had no trouble or social anxiety while in the middle of a fight, but the moment I stepped outside the ring and it all came crashing back down. Being allowed to swing my sword gave me more options- didn't leave me feeling as powerless as I so often felt. In normal society, however, I couldn't just swing it at anyone that tried to talk to me. Stupid laws.

Jaune was the only one I could rely on to protect me.

A responsibility he took very seriously. We brought out the worst in one another, my brother and I. So long as he was around, I never had to get good at communicating with others. I could remain reclusive my whole life. Jaune knew this and in a way felt responsible. He wanted me to get better, but he also knew he had been the one who enabled me to slip this far. To make up for that he would protect me, no matter what it was.

"Oh man…" Even if he sometimes would regret it. "I really messed that up, didn't I?" My brother moaned into his hands, voice coming out muffled and barely understandable.

He and I were in our room now. As it just so happened, we were in the same building, on the same floor, and just down the hall from RWBY's and PRDS's rooms. Those two teams were right across from one another, ours just another four doors down. Despite this proximity, we hadn't come back together, Jaune and I excusing ourselves first before making a swift retreat from the rest of them.

Which was just fine with me.

"There's no point beating yourself up over it." I said, my voice the strongest it had been all day. Jaune sat on the edge of his bed, one of the only two in the room. I sat directly in front of my brother on the second bed. The two were lined up side by side with only a small walkway between them, headrests against the far wall. He had claimed the bed closer to the door by dropping his suitcase on it when we stopped by earlier, giving me the one closer to the window.

The room reminded me more of a hotel than a dorm. Perhaps slightly bigger than any room we have ever been able to afford staying in, but it was the most apt comparison I could make. It had also been quite obviously set up for us in advanced. There was two of everything in here. Between the beds, dressers, and desks alone, I couldn't imagine how you were supposed to fit enough for four people inside one of these rooms.

I considered asking Ruby to send me a picture of her team's room just to see how it could even be done. However, right now felt like it might be a bit of an awkward time to message her. You know, considering we ran away from them and all.

"That's easy for you to say." Jaune mumbled, still refusing to uncover his face."You're not the one who messed everything up." Okay, even if that was true, it wasn't like I made things any better by just silently glowering at everyone. My attitude is what led to the circumstances where he had to step up in the first place.

Telling him this was pointless. My brother was beyond the console of words now.

I silently stood up, unfastening the straps holding the orange sleeves on my arms. Once they were off, I then pulled the Pumpkin Pete's hoodie over my head before unceremoniously dumping the articles of clothing on top of him.

"Ah, what!?" Jaune knocked the clothes from him and they fell to his lap. Any further words he might have had died when he realized what they were.

"Wear them," I commanded, already walking around the side of the bed and standing in front of his suitcase. "Your smell is gone." It was impossible for me to calm down enough to sleep without his scent lingering around me. No doubt that was also the primary cause behind my most recent bout of insomnia. I kept his clothes too long again.

"Joan…" Jaune's voice had an edge of trepidation to it now. Not because I was making him wear his treasured hoodie. No, he was ecstatic to have that back. It was because he knew what was coming next.

I unzipped his suitcase, reaching into the bottom of it and finding the appropriate attire. "I'll be wearing this tonight."

From the depths of his bag, I pulled out a light blue onesie. It was cute in an atrocious kind of way, the feet at the bottom consisting of two bunny faces, complete with floppy ears and all. I pushed the fabric against my face and inhaled deeply, hoping to get his scent. It was there, but only barely. All our clothes had been freshly washed the day before our arrival. I frowned in dissatisfaction at it before finally dropping the words my brother was already anticipating, "You and I are sleeping in the same bed tonight."

"I don't…" Jaune paused and averted his eyes. He slowly started taking off his Beacon uniform, almost meticulous about it as if it would somehow delay the inevitable. "Maybe we shouldn't do that on our first night here?" An expected excuse.

No one would be in here to see us, but that wasn't the point he was trying to make. This was supposed to be the start of a new life for us. One where we could both become better. If we fell back into old habits right off the bat, what hope did we have for improving in the future? It was sound logic, but only if you ignored his earlier actions. Which I had no intention of doing.

"You took my pills from me." Instead I lauded something else over him. There was no point trying to reason with him, since he was in the right. So I sought to guilt him. "I haven't slept in days, Jaune…" I unclipped my bra, letting the pink fabric fall to the floor and expose my breasts. "Please…"

He didn't even turn to look at me, sliding the suit off and merely letting it crumple to the floor in front of him. "...Fine." It was with a sigh of resignation that he relented. He knew he could argue that the pills hadn't been doing anything for me. But he also knew my real intentions by even bringing them up. They were an excuse. Nothing more. Jaune and I were going to sleep in the same bed tonight, I had already made up my mind. I was just giving him a reason to accept it without making it an outright order.

The two of us continued changing. It was a far simpler process for me, the only things left to take off my stockings and shorts. They collapsed around my legs, leaving me in naught but those pink panties I knew my brother was fond of. He was in the middle of unbuttoning his shirt when the bright fabric must have caught his eye. My lips curled upwards and light blush tinted at my cheeks as I watched him try and fail not to glance at me.

It was just a quick double-take at first, before he went back to unbuttoning the rest of his shirt. As he slid the shirt off, he pretended to turn with the motion, eyes lingering on me a little longer this time. Followed quickly by another glance. Jaune sat rigid and still, no longer further undressing himself. Instead waging a silent mental war. It ended with a long, deep sigh of resignation, his bare shoulders rising and then falling.

He looked at me. Every part of me. His eyes scoured over every visible inch of my body, sometimes pausing to take a part of me more properly in. My breathing deepened, causing my breasts to rise and fall. The bottom of my bright pink underwear became a little darker. I lifted a hand, curling one of my blonde locks around my finger and bit at my lower lip. None of these things escaped his vision… and that pleased me so damn much.

It wasn't like Jaune and I had never seen one another like this before. This would just be the first time he had ever so blatantly given me attention like this while also having that hungry, burning desire buried in the back of his sapphire eyes. When he looked at me in the past, it had always been with the doting eyes of a big brother. He was aware of my feelings and while I always had an inkling his own existed, he never showed them.

Something about that interaction in the bath house changed that just now. Before, there had never been an urgency for us to acknowledge our feelings… our growing sexual desire. Finally being confronted by people our own age had triggered a reaction that made it impossible to ignore, even for him. Coming to Beacon was Jaune's idea to improve my condition, but it seemed to have only deteriorated his.

One little push was all I needed to give. I said it before, but Jaune would never outright deny me if I gave him a command. He would try to dissuade me against it and would most definitely voice his complaints, but if I told him right now to take me… to make me his; he would do it.

Like how his eyes wandered over me, I also observed him. His arms were thick and muscular, a direct result of our year spent fighting Grimm. I still remember when those arms had been like twigs, biceps flabby and without power. The skin of his chest used to be unscarred, but was now littered with all kinds of deep gouges and jagged cuts. Some of those injuries had been fatal, if not for his Semblance. My eyes lingered for the longest time on his pants, in particular where they seemed to be all the more restricting and uncomfortable.

All I had to do was walk over to him. I could leave the onesie at my feet and just go as I was. Even if he said something, I would just ignore him. I would drop to my knees and undo his belt. Slip off his pants and expose every part of him for me to claim. A shiver ran up my spine as I considered the possibility. It should be so easy for me to do this right now. So then…

Why was I hesitating?

This was what I had wanted ever since I realized the truth. Ever since our parents sat us down and told us about how strange our relationship was. Explained to us that it wasn't normal for a fifteen year old boy and girl to sleep in the same bed together, bathe together, and lovingly hold one another. It hadn't been strange for me until then, but after they told me… I knew what I wanted. I didn't just want to sleep in the same bed as him. I didn't just want to hold him. I wanted… to make love with him. I wanted him on the deepest, most intimate level you can ever want someone.

Most girls in this situation might lament about it. Why did I have to fall in love with my brother? Why do I want to be with my brother? That point of view was wrong. No, it was _because_ he was my twin brother that I felt this way. No one else but him would do. I was happy when I found out the truth of my feelings. It was like the puzzle piece that was always missing had suddenly clicked into place.

Therefore, there was no reason I should want to hold back right now. Not when my brother was finally returning my gaze with the same heated, passionate desire that I had for the longest time given him. Our feelings weren't wrong, there was no way I could believe they were wrong. It was society that was messed up, not us.

If I so adamantly believed all this… then why? Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew. The logical part of my brain was pushed aside, dominated by primal, lust-filled hunger. But it was still there and it was shouting the answer in the tiniest, most miniscule voice imaginable. My burning passion tried to drown it out, but it was too late. I had already heard it.

Jaune didn't want this. Not really.

Maybe deep down he did. No, he definitely did. The look in his eyes right now wouldn't be there if he didn't at least feel it a little. It was just ordinarily so supressed that even I couldn't pick up on it in normal, everyday life. My brother always showed me all the love in the world, but it was just as that. An overprotective big brother, not a lover.

Unlike me, he was trying to fight against our nature. Not because it was wrong or immoral, but because of that guilt he carried around. It all cycled back to that. He wanted me to become better, but he couldn't stand to leave me. The contradiction was beautiful… but all too frustrating.

It wasn't hopeless, however. Not for me. This was the result after only the first day of being here at Beacon. The walls Jaune had spent the last three years building up finally showed their cracks and I realized just how fragile they had always been.

I could wait.

Pushing him into something now would work. He might even come to accept that it was inevitable. However, there would always be that doubt in his mind if I didn't first let him try to fight it. Only when he knew it was pointless, could I initiate this without regrets. I don't want my brother to be disappointed in himself, after all. I wanted him to think he had fought this for as long as he possibly could have.

Both of my hands fell to my sides and my breathing relaxed. There wasn't much I could do for my underwear, the base of them already wet and a sticky fluid trailing down the side of my leg. That was how excited I got with just him looking at me. I let all that go, burying the lust and instead focusing on other things.

Like how cold it was in this room. My bare nipples stood completely erect and my skinny arms started to quiver. It was in that moment Jaune seemed to snap out of it. He had been sitting so stock still that I don't even think he had been breathing. With a sudden gasp, his whole body deflated like a balloon and he glanced down at the space between us.

"You're going to catch a cold." He said. "Put on the onesie... and could you pass me my fleece bottoms?" His voice was muddled, dazed even. Like he just took a blow to the back of the head from a baseball bat. I don't even think he had fully come to grips what had just almost happened. How close we had been to finally crossing that line.

"Okay." I simply agreed with his request, first stepping into the onesie. Like all his clothes, it was a little too big for me. The legs and arms of the onesie bunched up in weird places just to properly fit over my petite body. There was a zipper on the front, but I only pulled it up halfway, leaving the inside of my breasts still exposed.

By the time I tossed my brother his bottoms, he had put on the Pumpkin Pete hoodie and orange sleeves. His pants had come off, leaving his legs in just pure white briefs. He pulled the blue fleece up in one swift motion and then started adjusting the pillows and pulling back the comforter.

I walked around the side, stopping behind him just as he finished. With a satisfied nod, he turned to me. "Come on, Joan." He chided after seeing the way I was wearing his onesie. "You gotta zip it up properly or you'll freeze in your sleep." He reached for the zipper positioned just below my breasts, no hesitance at all in his movements. Almost like that moment that just passed between us hadn't happened. I allowed him to completely zip me up, but as his hand pulled away, I caught it with both of mine.

He frowned at me, eyebrows knitting in concern. A part of him had no idea what I was about to do and I think that scared him. We had just come so close to stepping past that line once and for all, there was no way he could believe I was satisfied with the result. He would also be correct, but my satisfaction wasn't important right now.

I simply wanted to feel him. To be closer to him and know he was close to me.

My fingers traced the palm of his hand, feeling the rough calluses that hadn't previously been there even a year ago. Only once I was satisfied did I lift his hand, pressing it against my cheek. He didn't resist my pull at all, simply allowing me to do with his hand as I pleased. I could have used him to pleasure myself and I don't think he would have fought me.

What a thought that was too. How many times had I pictured that? How many times had I slid my tiny, short fingers into myself while pretending… wishing they were his long, calloused digits? Just imagining it caused a trickle to start back up and I had to fight the swelling emotions down unless I risk caving into them.

Instead the only thing I did was continue to hold his hand against my cheek, feeling the warmth of it against the otherwise cool air of the bedroom. His thumb began to gently stroke my face and he leaned forward, pressing his lips against my forehead. I made a soft hum, content for now with just this. In any other situation, this action may have been brotherly of him, but right now and after what almost just happened, I knew it was more than just that. We were more than that.

Not to him. Not yet. In his mind, we were still somehow south of the point of no return. The problem with the point of no return was that it was just an arbitrary line marked in the sand. And different people put it at different places. For most of society, my brother and I had gone past the point of redemption long ago. Longer than we were even aware there was a problem. I placed the mark right about where society saw fit to make me think there was a problem. And Jaune… I had a feeling he wouldn't see the line until true physical consummation.

Until then, he would continue to believe we weren't somehow already broken.

I leaned into him, burying my face into his hoodie and inhaling deeply. The unfamiliar soap and shampoo from the bath assaulted my nostrils, but more than that… there was also _him._ You read about it in those books all the time, where girls compare the smell of the guy they like to some kind of fruit or gum they're fond of. Not me. Jaune was just… it was Jaune. There was no smell in the world like him. Nothing could replicate the effect it had on me or I would have long since obtained it.

His other hand came around to rest against the small of my back, pulling me even closer to him. Meanwhile the other had moved to the top of my head, gently stroking my hair and running his fingers through my blonde locks.

"Brother…" I called out to him, voice now breathless and black tendrils beginning to crawl at my vision. Finally, sleep was coming to take me, but I fought it off a little bit longer yet. "I love you." He paused, as if my words somehow finally made him realize how intimate our current situation was. I could feel his hesitance through his body language, arms locking up and breathing grinding to a halt. It ended only a second later and he relaxed, leaning back onto the bed and bringing me with him.

He laid me down first, his motions gentle and meticulous as if he was handling a doll. Then his head hit the pillow next to me and he pulled the covers over us. I snuggled my face once again into his hoodie, the drowsiness now stronger than before. Vaguely, I felt Jaune's chin rest against the top of my head and he once again took me into his arms.

"I love you too, Joan…" He whispered heavily. "You're my precious sister." I could hear the internal struggle. How unsure he was of the meaning behind those words, despite the fact that he was the one who said them.

"You're my _everything._ " I whispered back, the last thing I was able to do before my dreams took me away for the first time in days.

* * *

 **The First Day (End)**


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